


Cabin Fever

by toadamie



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, LaFerry - Freeform, Silas University, Summer Society, cabin in the woods, hollence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2018-12-30 01:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12098148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toadamie/pseuds/toadamie
Summary: A Hollence fic because DANNY LAWRENCE DESERVES BETTER and I can give her some happiness. Basically, instead of using Laura as bait to catch Carmilla, they come up with another plan.





	1. we're camping in the woods for fun, nothing sinister here

“Laura, wake up, we’re here.”

Danny looks over at her adorably unconscious companion and smiles for the first time today. Truth be told, she hasn’t been able to relax since the moment Laf unceremoniously announced Laura’s roommate was a vampire. 

She blames herself for not noticing—her instincts should have picked up on it right away. Unfortunately, she had assumed her immediate disliking of Carmilla was for…other reasons. Reasons that are curled up in the passenger seat of her truck, slumbering.

Sighing, Danny reaches over and gently shakes Laura’s shoulder. “Hey, wake up you doofus, I said we’re here.” Laura stirs uneasily and moans, a frown creasing her forehead. Danny’s stomach twists as she realizes what Laura is probably dreaming about, and all the implications that holds.

The overwhelming need to _fix it_ washes over her, and she unbuckles both their seatbelts before jumping out of the car. She lurches unsteadily across the snow until she makes it to Laura’s side. Opening the door, she is greeted by a falling mound of pillows, blankets, and somewhere in there, her girlfriend.

Maybe girlfriend—she doesn’t really know what they are. It doesn’t matter anyway: rushing things will only turn out badly, she reminds herself as she catches the slowly tipping pile of limbs she would do anything for.

The frozen air reaches Laura and penetrates her exhaustion, rousing her from her bad dream. “Wha—hm?” She mumbles against Danny’s chest. “I wasn’t asleep, I swear.” Danny sighs affectionately and awkwardly pulls her the rest of the way out of the car.

“Come on, kiddo, let’s get you inside.” Since Laura is clearly still too sleep-dazed to carry herself anywhere, Danny sweeps her up into her arms and makes her way to the cabin porch, trailing blankets and cookie crumbs the whole way.

Five minutes later, she has managed to bang her way inside and deposit her…friend onto the couch before heading back outside. The carrying in and depositing part had only taken two minutes. The other three had been spent trying to extricate herself from a very clingy, and surprisingly strong for being half-asleep, Laura.

Danny breathes the sharp air heavily as she leans against the wooden railing. She is ready to collapse. Ever since that night she has been nothing but worry. That night. She can still feel the way the panic rose in her throat when she got Laura’s text: 

**Come quick. Stuck in library. Bring fire extinguisher.**

And things had only gone downhill from there.

Carmilla and blood in the milk container. Carmilla and super strength. Carmilla and not aging. Carmilla and girls disappearing. Carmilla and seduction eyes.

Stupid vampire seduction eyes aimed at her roommate, a tiny, trusting, brave journalism major who makes everything in this screwed up world seem worth dealing with. Yeah, there is no way Danny is going to let anything hurt her, especially not some foul, evil, soulless, _vampire._

She bares her teeth at the thought of Carmilla alone in a room with a helpless Laura. She is some twisted creature out for blood, and they’re going to put a stop to it. Danny’s phone buzzes suddenly, startling her. She digs inside her coat before managing to pull it loose, almost dropping it in the process. She curses her numb fingers and angrily pokes the screen to life.

Crap. It’s from Perry.

**Did you make it to the cabin yet? Because I had Laf do the math and they said you should be at the cabin by now, but you said you would let us know when you got there and you haven’t contacted us. Please respond.**

She sighs for about the twentieth time today and types a quick response.

**Sorry. We just arrived. I’ll keep you updated.**

Normally she doesn’t text in full sentences but she knows Perry gets irritated by bad grammar, even over text, and she is worried enough. Danny can almost hear her anxious tone, and feels bad for forgetting to alert them right away. Although, it hasn’t exactly been long since they got there.

Putting her phone away, the redhead is hit by the fact that they actually made it off the campus. She had felt so sure something was going to go wrong and they wouldn’t be able to get Laura away, even to the last second.

But here they are, in a cabin so remote even Carmilla’s super senses can’t track down. She hopes. That’s the heart of her fear, Danny muses while slowly picking up the blanket debris lying on the icy ground. What would they do if someone finds them?

They can’t. The whole plan relies on no one being able to find Laura and Danny. That’s why she went to all this trouble, refusing to tell even Laf and Perry the exact location of this cabin. It has belonged to her family for generations, and the whole point of the cabin back when it was being built was to avoid people.

So they’ll be fine, she reassures herself. No one will find them. Laura will get better now that she’s away from whatever that awful vampire was doing to her. And, while she’s recovering, Laf and Perry will figure out everything they can about the missing girls.

“We _will_ win, and we _will_ save Laura,” Danny whispers aloud, firmly shutting the passenger door of her truck. She ignores the voice in her head that whispers back _“but what if you can’t?”_  
“We will.”

She heads back inside wearily. One look to confirm that Laura is (now more peacefully) asleep on the couch, and then Danny crashes into her old bedroom and lets sleep taker her. Everything else can wait until the morning.

————————

_There is a voice, calling Laura. She smiles. It’s so beautiful. It sounds upset though…why is it upset? It tells her it’s because she’s not there. She’s gone away. Vaguely, Laura knows this. She tries to explain to the voice why she left, but she can’t quite remember. The voice calls harder. She needs to come back. She can feel the urgency, and her heart breaks at the thought of disappointing whoever has such a lovely voice. She tries to walk toward the voice, but she can’t feel her legs. The voice is getting more distant. She can’t give up._

————————

Danny isn’t sure what woke her up, but she instantly knows something is wrong. It’s cold and too quiet. She bolts into the hallway and sees that the front door is hanging wide open, letting in small flakes of snow. Peeking around the corner, she sees that Laura’s not on the couch anymore.

“Laura? Are you getting stuff from the car?” She asks while stepping forward. There’s no response. Adrenaline starting to rise, Danny leaps to the porch and looks out, desperately hoping to see Laura unpacking her duffel bag of clothes. No sign of her.

By this point Danny is well on her way to panic, but she forces herself to take in the situation calmly. There’s no sign of struggle. Even all the blankets are still on the couch, albeit very messily. Like someone got up without bothering to untangle herself first, not like someone was forcibly dragged away.

Her brain racing, Danny thinks of everything she knows about vampires from books and the internet while getting dressed. The dreams, the tiredness, the party attitude… sleepwalking? Is that a symptom of a nightly visitor? She thinks so, but she she isn’t sure enough to be confident. It’s better than nothing, but she curses her hazy memory.

After stomping outside, she scans the landscape for signs of where Laura might have gone. Time is of the essence. Based on the light dusting let in by the open door, it hasn’t been more than a few minutes, but it’s well below freezing outside, and Laura’s shoes are still inside. Danny wants to scream at herself for taking them off when she brought Laura inside.

“I should have remembered the sleepwalking was bound to happen when we took her away. I should have locked the door. I’m an idiot, I forgot to even lock the freaking door, I knew something would go wrong—” she cuts herself off.

As much as she wants to berate herself for failing so miserably, now is not the time. She needs to focus on getting Laura back. She takes a deep breath. _Focus. You can do this. First: which direction did she go in?_

————————

Objectively, Danny finds her remarkably quickly, but to her, every second is an eternity too long. She actually shouts with relief when she sees Laura propped up against a tree, weakly trying to push herself forward. She approaches her with caution, however.

Laura’s eyes are closed, so she must still be asleep. She’s dressed in her tank top and sweatpants from the day before, which is fine in a heated car, but awful for a pre-dawn hike in snowy woods. Her socks are soaked, in fact, everything is soaked. She looks like she’s fallen down several times, but kept going.

“Laura, honey, please wake up,” Danny says with quiet desperation, hesitantly touching her shoulder. It’s cold as ice. Tears well up in her eyes, but she forces them back. Not now. “Laura,” she calls, louder this time but just as softly, “You’re dreaming, wake up.” Laura mutters something and her eyes flutter. Danny shakes her shoulder lightly.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she cries suddenly, opening her eyes. They slowly focus on her friend. “Danny? Where, where are we? I’m so c-c-cold,” she chatters out. Danny sighs a quick breath of relief, but she knows they aren’t safe yet. She needs to get Laura back to the warm cabin immediately and assess the damage. Hypothermia is very real, and she’ll be damned if she got Laura away from a vampire just to lose her to something like this.

She bends down and hugs Laura around her torso. “Put your arms around my neck and wrap your legs about me.” Laura has slipped back into the fog of whatever supernatural sleep is haunting her, so she complies clumsily and without urgency. At least, Danny hopes it’s the dream symptoms and not the cold.

With Laura attached to her front like a toddler, she makes her way back to the cabin carefully but as fast as she can. She holds Laura so tightly she can feel her heartbeat. It feels small. Laura feels small.

Normally she gives off the impression of being taller than she is, but when Danny is carrying her like this, she realizes just how tiny and fragile she is. Her pace increases.

Soon, the cabin is in sight, and from there she is all but running. She forces her way through the door without dropping her package, and carries Laura to the bedroom. She tears off her boots while Laura stands there, shivering lightly. She needs to warm Laura up.

Danny snaps into automatic mode. Laura’s wet clothes are a big no. She starts with her socks, then hesitates. Laura is zoning out, muttering to herself about a pretty voice, or something like that. Her voice isn’t slurred, so it looks like her daze is because of vampire dreamland, not hypothermia.

Danny carefully reaches for the bottom of her tank top and peels it upward, guiding her arms up and pulling it all the way off. Thankfully, Laura is wearing a bra, but Danny can’t help but notice the high amount of exposed skin. She avoids looking up and instead focuses on the sweatpants.

Oh God. Danny feels herself getting red. _This is a medical emergency. Control your damn hormones and take off her pants before she freezes, Lawrence!_ She closes her eyes and steels herself. “I’m sorry.”

Danny wants to throw up at how wrong it feels. Laura is giggling lightly while swaying a bit unsteadily. It’s like she’s taking advantage of a drunk girl. Her stomach roils horribly at the thought, and she quickly wraps a light blanket around the unconcerned girl, kicking her clothes into a pile

“Alright, I think you’re going to be okay. Into bed, come on, let’s go.” Danny strips off her own outermost layers and climbs under the covers with Laura, who appears to be waking up and realizing how cold she is. She snuggles up to Danny from within her little blanket burrito, and Danny puts her arms around her.

“You’re so warm and cuddly,” Laura mutters appreciatively, and Danny goes red again. “You’re like a big giant puppy, you know that?”

“Go home, Hollis. You’re drunk.”

————————

It’s late morning when Danny wakes up. Her arm is around something soft and warm—LAura. Danny jerks out of the bed like it’s on fire. She takes a deep breath. Then another one. She’s fine. She looks up, and sees Laura, still asleep in her bed. Danny’s bed. Laura Hollis. She’s not fine.

“Contain your gay for one second,” she whispers angrily, brushing hair out of her face while trying to get her heartbeat back to normal. “We shared body heat because she was dangerously cold. She was also under the vampiric influence. Your thoughts are not cool.” She feels herself starting to cool down. Just breathe.

Danny goes to make breakfast. Pancakes and coffee, that’s what they need. They made it to the cabin, and now they can just focus on getting Laura better. She's calm again. A little later, she hears movement in the other room as Laura wakes up.

“Danny?”

“I’m in the kitchen.”

“Why am I half-naked in your bed?”

Danny almost spills pancake batter on herself. “You went sleepwalking last night and your clothes were soaked. Sorry,” she calls out. There’s some thumping from the other room.

“Oh.” More thumping, then quiet footsteps in the hall. “Danny?” Laura says softly, now at the entryway to the kitchen. Danny turns around while sipping her coffee, then promptly chokes on it.

Laura is wearing one of Danny’s sweaters, and that appears to be the only thing she is wearing. Due to the size difference, it covers her like a short, baggy dress, but still, the redhead is completely unprepared for this turn of events. She sputters and coughs viciously, trying unsuccessfully to breathe.

“Don’t laugh! My clothes from yesterday are still soaked, and I was going to ask you to get the rest from the car outside,” she pouts. _Yeah,_ Danny thinks, _I wasn’t laughing._ She keeps that little nugget to herself, however, and offers a weak apology between gasps.

“I’m sorry, you just look like a toddler in that.” Not true at all. “But yeah, I’ll go get your clothes, that’s my fault.” She brushes past her quickly so she can’t see her expression. The cold air helps as she tries to think of anything but Laura’s thighs peeking from under her shirt.

After changing into real clothes, Laura pops back into the room. “So, what’s this I hear about me sleepwalking?” She’s trying to keep her tone casual, but Danny can hear the deep fear hidden behind it. She can’t even imagine what it must feel like to have your mind being taken over against your will.

Laura has been suffering from the onslaught of a vampire for a while now. She must feel awful, and Danny is hit by the memory of everything that’s her fault. They’ve been here for less than twelve hours and she’s already screwed up so much.

“Yeah, sleepwalking. Just another effect of the unearthly, like the nightmares.” She rubs her forehead fiercely.

“God, I should have known this was going to happen. Logically, the only reason it wasn’t happening before is because there was no need for you to go anywhere since you were already bunking with FangFace. So obviously, when she found out you were gone she wanted to make you come to her and I should have known—” her voice has been rising in hysteria and now it breaks.

“I should have—”

“Hey,” Laura soothes, moving closer and hugging her with one arm, “it’s okay. No one could have seen this coming. You’re doing the best you can. I know that.” Her voice is so soft, Danny wants to sink into it and let herself be reassured. But she shouldn’t be the one being reassured, she needs to be there for Laura, not the other way around.

“It’s not okay. I’m supposed to protect you, that’s my job. There’s no one else here to protect you, Laf and Perry are still at campus because they need to figure out where the missing girls went and I can’t even lock the door to the damn cabin!”

Frustrated tears start to fall down her face, and before she can rub them into oblivion Laura’s other hand is at her face. She carefully wipes them away, and Danny can’t help but to lean into her touch.

“Look at me, Danny.” She obliges, and finds herself captivated by Laura’s sure expression. “Of course something was going to go wrong. We aren’t exactly experts in the paranormal, no matter how much Laf believes in the illuminati.” Danny snorts despite herself.

“Think of it this way: we got our big mistake out of the way. I kept feeling so nervous, like I knew something was going to go wrong. Well, we weren’t counting for sleepwalking. It went all wrong. But, you got me back. We’ll be ready for it next time. We’ll be ready for whatever gets thrown at us. And we’ll get through it, I promise.”

Danny is crying harder at this point, but Laura’s small hand hasn’t stopped its wonderful work. She brushes away all her tears and hugs her to her shoulder, humming softly until she calms down.

This is part of why Danny loves her so much. She can’t explain it, but something about Laura just forces people to believe in her. Danny can’t think of another person she’s felt herself so drawn to. She grins against her tiny, fierce shoulder before straightening out.

“You know, you’re right, Hollis. This is only the beginning.”


	2. a study in friendly banter, and definitely not flirting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to happen, eventually.

“You’re an animal, Laura. The pancakes aren’t going anywhere, you don’t need to devour the whole thing in one bite.” Danny laughs at the aggressive stance her new housemate is employing. Laura replies by mock snarling and ferociously snatches up the syrup container.

“I take eating very seriously Danny,” she gets out through a mouthful. “Once I pick up a fork, all bets are off. Friendship, family, love, these words mean nothing to me.” She holds character for a full three seconds before they both break down into more laughter.

“Seriously though, you’re pancake-creating abilities are amazing! I’ve never seen anything like them.” Danny grins brightly from over her own stack. She eats with more care, neatly mopping up syrup and savoring each bite before going for the next forkful.

“So, I’m thinking that after breakfast, we should do a tour of the cabin,” she suggests. Finally, they have a chance to slow down. None of them know how long it will take to detox Laura. They drove up Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and Danny knows better than to hope that it will all be sorted out by the weekend.

So they might well be here until Laf and Perry figure out what’s going on. Then, with the support of the Summer Society and anyone else they can scramble up, they’ll hunt down the guilty parties and make them pay.

But Danny isn’t very worried about that right now. She would be lying if she said the thought of spending a week or so alone with Laura, far away from the stress of school and the supernatural, wasn’t appealing. She just wishes they weren’t doing it because Laura was being plagued by a centuries-old creature from hell.

Danny shakes her head. Focus. Think about something else. Like how she can make this time as enjoyable as possible for Laura, under the circumstances. Well, she knows one way.

The “tour” of the house doesn’t take long. After the kitchen, there are two bedrooms, one bathroom, a tiny attic Danny can’t stand up straight in, and one living room. In the living room, at least there’s a TV right above the fireplace mantle. Oh, and numerous closets full of foodstuffs, blankets, and other supplies.

“We used to come up here every summer, and about once a month during the school year.” Laura raises her eyebrows. “That’s something you can do when you’re homeschooled,” she teases. “Me and my brother had the whole woods mapped out. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if some of our old forts are still standing.”

Laura smiles fondly at her as she lapses into nostalgia for a moment.  
“But when we weren’t roaming outside, we did enjoy a good movie or two.” With that sentence, she dramatically flips open a cupboard door to reveal an enormous collection of dvds stacked on top of each other.

Laura gasps and immediately flops to her knees and starts combing through them. Danny knows she loves movies, especially the cheesy ones that remind her of her childhood, which, luckily, happens to be the majority of their available choices.

“Oh my gosh, Danny!” She pulls out a battered case and hugs it to her chest. “You have Classic Doctor Who? We watched this religiously at my house!” She turns to Danny with pleading eyes, still crouched on the hardwood. “Can we watch one?”

Danny is more than happy to oblige her adorable friend, even when she isn’t whipping out a puppy-dog face that could soften the hardest of hearts. “Sure thing,” she laughs, leaning against the wall. “You don’t really have to ask, we’re going to have enough time to watch a lot of movies.”

Laura’s smile falters and Danny kicks herself for not being more careful. _This isn’t a real vacation,_ she reminds herself. They wouldn’t be here at all if it wasn’t for some awful crap. Hurriedly, she tries to change the tone.

“Of course, I’m not going to let you slip behind on your schoolwork.” Laura looks up and creases her brow in confusion. “Perry and I, we talked to your teachers and some of your classmates, and you’ll still be getting all your necessary notes and assignments online.”

A slow grin creeps up Laura’s face. Danny sighs a breath of relief in her head. She figured that Laura would like to be able to keep up with school, both to make things easier when she gets back and also to make things feel more normal while she’s here. It’ll be a reminder that this is only temporary.

“Thank you Danny. That’s really sweet, you didn’t have to go to all that trouble for me…” She sniffles and trails off. Danny smiles and leans down teasingly.

“Well, what kind of T.A. would I be if I let one of my students fall behind? Why, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself!” Laura laughs, but it’s the laugh of someone who is trying very hard not to cry.

“Oh, is that your only motivation?” she inquires, tilting her head in a mock challenge. “Just trying to make yourself look better?” Danny looks into her brown eyes and almost loses herself in how deep they are.

“No,” she admits softly, maintaining eye contact. Laura starts a little. “I wouldn’t do this for just anyone. But for you, I’d do this and a lot more.” She lets the comment hang in the air as they stare at each other, neither one blinking.

She suddenly becomes aware of the fact that they’ve gravitated closer together, so close that she can feel Laura’s breath slipping out of her mouth, which is hanging slightly open. She almost leans in, but then a rush of fear shoots through her system and Danny jerks upright.

Laura looks down and fidgets with the dvd, and she almost swears she looks disappointed, but honestly, it’s probably just her biased imagination. She attempts to lean back against the wall nonchalantly, but completely misses and ends up nearly toppling over.

Instead, she manages to catch herself by awkwardly twisting her feet around and bracing against the wall with her knees and face. She also somehow bangs her elbow in the process, and yelps in pain. _Smooth, Lawrence._

From behind her, she can hear Laura start to giggle. She ungracefully pulls herself up into a correct position and glares at the tiny figure. “It’s not funny!” She huffs.

“I’m sorry,” Laura gasps, almost pulling herself together. Then she looks at Danny’s expression of betrayal and rocks backward with more explosive laughter. Danny briefly considers trying to collect the tattered remains of her dignity, but she sees that Laura is laughing genuinely for the first time in too long, so she decides to give in and laugh as well.

“You are so rude!” she half-yells without any malice in her voice. “The least you could do is pretend to care if I injured myself!” Laura responds by doubling up on the floor. “Here, I’ll show you what it felt like!”

She drops down and begins to roll Laura back and forth while she tries to protest between guffaws. Danny keeps going, laughing and turning her assault into a tickle attack. At this development, Laura’s back arches and she pushes against Danny’s left arm, causing her to lose her balance and fall on her.

The struggle to be on top starts then, and they are both very determined. Limbs tangle and they both shriek with laughter as they fight for dominance. Quite a bit of illegal elbowing later, Laura has Danny pinned, legs straddling her midsection and hands stretching her arms helplessly past her head.

There’s a lull while they both try to catch their breath. Danny wiggles ineffectively, and finds herself unable to escape the hold. She looks up and Laura’s face is right above hers. In fact, all of Laura is either on top of or directly around her, and her face grows hot for a reason other than the exertion. She stops trying to break free.

Laura’s eyes are bright with victory, and her chest is heaving distractingly. She looks down at Danny with a wicked expression and leans in slightly.

“Do you surrender?” She asks hoarsely, most likely attempting to be intimidating but instead coming across an entirely different way. Danny, very aware of how close they are, bites her lip.

“I guess I have no choice. Do what you will, I’m at your mercy.” She knows how that sounds, she knows how risky it is to say something like that, but she doesn’t care. Even she can be stupidly impulsive, especially when there’s a pretty girl involved.

To her joy, Laura doesn’t pull back in disgust, but instead smiles wider, looking positively evil.

“Well then,” she drawls breathily, leaning forward so her face is positioned directly above Danny’s, “I guess there’s only one thing to do.” Without warning, she descends and pecks Danny’s nose before leaping up and giggling maniacally.

It’s all so fast she’s completely off Danny before she even processes what’s happening. Laura offers her a hand and she takes it, groaning as she pulls herself into a sitting position. As soon as she’s settled, Laura skips off, leaving the remains of her mischief behind.

Danny shakes her head slowly and finds herself unable to stop beaming. Softly, she touches the spot on her nose Laura’s lips brushed. She can still feel the ghost of them. She knows it might have just been the adrenaline rush, that she shouldn’t get her hopes up, but it’s too late.

She’s fallen for her, hard. And, even if it’s just as friends, she seems to be very important to Laura as well. That’s enough. She closes her eyes blissfully and lets her mind replay the image of Laura’s face very, very close to hers.

————————

Meanwhile, at Silas, Perry is, once again, doing something she would have never imagined. She puts down her binoculars and supposes that at this point, doing morally dubious things with little evidence is just part of being LaFontaine’s best friend.

But still, following another student, keeping tabs on them at all times, that’s bordering on the illegal! Even if said student is connected to a series of disappearances, not to mention the...other thing.

Perry shakes her head briskly. All this nonsense about vampires and sentient libraries and vast conspiracies, it’s all ridiculous. She will admit that something is going on, but unlike everyone else, she is not drinking the “supernatural” kool-aid. She’s been down that road before.

Honestly, she is surprised Danny went along with it so easily. Su—LaFontaine—has always had an affinity for the unexplained, but the Lit T.A. seemed like a logical person to Perry. And yet, she took almost no convincing before she jumped on the “Carmilla is an evil vampire” boat.

Perry purses her lips as she recalls two nights ago. Laura and Laf went off to the library at night like a bunch of idiots, and LaFontaine had nearly gotten themself killed.

She doesn’t know what she would do if anything ever happened to them, and with their profinity for finding trouble, it’s a miracle they haven’t seriously hurt themself yet. And now they’re dragging other people into their shenanigans.

Perry doesn’t really mind when it’s just her, like with this whole spying business, but when LaFontaine thought that Laura’s roommate was a murderous vampire kidnapping girls, their first idea was to use her as bait.

Thankfully, Danny shut that down pretty quick. Perry remembers how the only word she said for a full five minutes was “No,” sometimes prefaced with a “Laura,” or “Laf.” But, with Perry on her side, they eventually managed to talk the other two down from their ridiculousness.

Instead, the compromise. Danny taking Laura to some remote cabin so she is safe (and some nonsense about getting rid of vampiric influences) while Perry and LaFontaine stay and investigate the mystery. Maybe, if they find enough information, Laura can connect the dots and figure out what’s actually going on.

It’s definitely not what they all seem to want to think. Sure, Silas is strange, but it is not a nest for otherworldly creatures. Her brain attempts to remind her of a certain event from her freshman year but she shuts it down.

“Someone laced the food at that party with some drugs, and we all had a bad trip. That’s it. Fairies aren’t real. Vampires aren’t real. Magic. Isn’t. Real.” She wishes she has something to clean.

Movement distracts her. She looks up from behind the bush. It’s Carmilla, storming out of her lecture hall early. She’s not supposed to leave for another hour, and she looks pissed. Parry quickly packs her spying gear and gets ready to follow.

She hates how normal this is all starting to feel. This is not Normal. This is ridiculous. She considers calling LaFontaine, but before before she makes up her mind, Carmilla materializes in front of her. Right in front of her, looking ready to kill.

“Where’s Laura?” She demands menacingly. Perry gapes at her, frozen. She can’t move, is still standing with her backpack full of incriminating evidence slung half on.

“What?” She tries to ask innocently. It sounds fake even to her, but at least she is keeping the tremble out of her voice. Carmilla may not be some undead monster, but she is dangerously involved with the disappearances of at least four girls. Only two of whom have shown back up. Perry doesn’t want to be the fifth.

“Her pillow is still on my bed. She should have moved it back by now.” That sentence doesn’t make any sense to Perry, but from the way Carmilla is dragging her hands through her hair, it’s clear she’s very distracted.

“I need to know if she’s still around.” Carmilla snaps her attention to Perry and narrows her eyes. “You’re her friend.” It sounds like an accusation. “Did she say anything to you?” Perry gulps. They knew this would happen and they agreed it would be best to play dumb.

“N-no.” Perry can’t help the stutter. Frantically, she wonders how long it would take LaFontaine to notice if she doesn’t check back in when she’s supposed to. They wouldn’t stop at anything to keep her safe. The thought helps steel her nerves.

“I don’t have any idea where Laura is. She’s your roommate, isn’t she?” Perry is surprised by how calm she sounds now.

Carmilla, however, seems even more stressed. She lunges forward and grabs Perry roughly by the shoulders.

“Yes! Yes, she is my roommate, and the charm was supposed to be working! And now she’s gone and I don’t know why, and your attitude is not helping! You’re supposed to care about her, doesn’t this seem suspicious to you?”

Her eyes have a unhinged look in them, and her nails dig into Perry. Fear rushes into her. She doesn’t understand this charm talk, but it sounds exactly like the sort of thing a serial killer would do. Is anyone at this university sane?

“Look, I’m sorry, but when was the last time you saw Laura?”

“I don’t know, maybe two days ago, maybe less. We don’t exactly have matching schedules.” Carmilla’s tone is so biting Perry actually flinches. She tries to gently remove the other girl’s intense grip on her.

“So she’s been gone for a day? Maybe? That’s hardly missing. I’m sure she’ll turn up.” She can’t believe she’s pretending to comfort a potential kidnapper who is only upset because her future victim has managed to slip away.

Not for the first time, she wishes Laf was next to her. They’re better at all this deception stuff. Carmilla exhales tensely. She lets go of Perry.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” She’s clearly unconvinced, but appears to have decided that the ginger knows nothing. She looks up and for the first time since Perry’s met her she looks sincere, almost scared. “If you see her, will you let me know?” Perry nods vigorously. _No, I most certainly will not._

“Of course.” Perry watches as she stalks off. She waits until she’s almost out of view, then begins to follow her. Time to call LaFontaine.

————————

With a Doctor Who Christmas special in front of her and Laura snuggled up to her side, Danny can almost forget anything is wrong. They’re sharing an old blanket, curled up on the couch laughing at the bad effects. The plot, however, is as good as she remembers from her childhood.

Laura grabs some more popcorn, and looks up at Danny. “Hey.” Danny looks down. She opens her mouth to ask what’s up but is stopped by Laura shoving the handful of kernels into her jaws. She gags in surprise before swallowing the barrage.

“What the hell was that?” She demands while laughing. Laura giggles and replies,

“You looked like you were going to fall asleep on me, so I had to wake you up. I might get crushed under your mass!” She may have been close to sleep. They’ve been watching episodes the whole day, and now it’s late. But she’s not going to give in that easily.

“My mass, huh?” Danny opens her eyes wide and pretends to be insulted. Laura panics.

“Wait, not like that. I just meant, because, you know, you’re so tall!” Danny’s mouth quivers like she’s about to cry.

“Oh, I see. You just meant that I’m a giant, a freak of nature.” It takes all of her effort not to burst into laughter. Teasing Laura is both easy and fun.

Laura tries ineffectively to come up with a response, instead settling for incoherent sputtering. Danny laughs and reaches an arm around her. “I’m kidding, Laura. You’re cute when you’re flustered.

Laura does not appear to be made any less flustered by that statement. She squeaks indignantly for a few more moments before settling into Danny’s side. Huffing, she slides her arms around her waist and pulls her legs up until they’re practically on Danny’s lap.

“You’re lucky you’re cute too.” She rests her head on the taller girl’s shoulder and Danny nuzzles her hair. Carefully, afraid that any wrong move might prove disastrous, she rubs her hand along Laura’s back. Based on the way she sighs and snuggles closer, it seems to be the right move.

Danny smiles. The top of Laura’s head smells really nice, like her shampoo mixed with a hint of cocoa. Both of their breathing slows down as they relax, the episode still playing softly, but forgotten in favor of each other. She could stay like this forever.

Of course, the second she thinks that, her phone goes off. Laura jumps in surprise, then reaches to the coffee table and the picks up offensively ringing rectangle.

“It’s Perry.” Danny takes the phone and puts it on speaker phone.

“Perry? Is everything okay?” Worry is already coursing through her system. She let herself spend the whole day relaxing, of course something went wrong. There’s a brief silence during which her heart drops to her stomach, then a loud response.

“Yeah, everything’s cool. It’s me, Laf, though. I texted you about a thousand times, god, check your phone.” Danny and Laura exchange a look. “Of course, Per’s here too. Say hi, Perry.”

Perry’s voice, significantly less casual. “Hello, Laura and Danny.” She sounds a combination of annoyed, frustrated, and terrified.

“Hi Perry!” Laura chimes in. “I miss you already! Danny is very bad at cleaning.” Danny elbows her indignantly. The statement is, of course, completely unfounded, but it earns a small laugh from Perry.

“It’s nice to know someone appreciates me,” she says, putting so much emphasis on someone they can almost feel Laf flinching from the cabin. “Anyway, we have something to tell you.” The words come out like she had to physically force them through her teeth. “LaFontaine, tell them.”

“Alright, but i still don’t see why you shouldn’t be the one to say it. I mean, you’re the one who almost got attacked.”

“Wait, who almost got attacked?” Danny’s voice is an octave higher than usual. “Someone explain, right now!”

“LaFontaine, _please._ ” Perry sounds like she’s in pain, and Danny’s worry spikes even higher.

“Fine. Whatever, you big baby.” Laf sounds tired, but not angry. “So, Carmilla came after her to ask about Laura.”

Laura grabs Danny’s hand and holds on tightly. “Oh my god! Are you okay, Per?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. She was, well, scary. But she didn’t hurt me.” Laf growls at that.

“I think your shoulders might say differently! They still have indents from where her little claws grabbed you,” they angrily get out. 

“I already told you, I don’t think she realized how hard she was gripping. She was seriously freaked out.”

Danny already has a headache from trying to figure out who is saying what, and their bickering isn’t helping.

“Hey! Could you two please explain to me what happened, in detail, without any interruptions, or fighting, or making vague references to potential injuries that you have then insisting you’re fine!” There’s another moment of silence, then Laf sighs.

“Sorry Summer Society, yes we can do that. As you know, Per and I are tracking Carmilla. So, after one of her classes—”

“Not after, she left early,” Perry begins, but stops when Danny groans. “Continue, LaFontaine.”

“Whatever, she left class early and jumped Perry like a thug from a gangster movie.” There’s a slapping noise, and Laf yelps. “Ow, my arm! Fine, she _approached_ Perry and very politely inquired as to the location of Laura. Calmly. While giving off lunatic murder vibes.”

Perry sighs and takes over. “And I told her I didn’t know, because that’s what we all agreed to say, but she didn’t seem to buy it. She kept asking me, like, she was really upset. And she said something about a charm not working, I don’t know.” It’s Laura’s turn to groan.

“Yeah, she gave me this creepy bat wing bracelet thing, said it was for my bad dreams.” She shudders and Danny rubs her thumb across her hand soothingly. “I stuffed it under her bed. I guess it was to keep me under her control or something, whatever. I’m so glad I dumped it.”

Danny’s anger is rising. How dare she. That vile thing, walking around like it’s a real person, giving Laura presents under the guise of friendship, when in reality she’s just trying to suck her life away. Worse, if she’s really as upset as Perry makes it sound, she might have some twisted form of real feelings for Laura.

Her grip on Laura gets tighter. She is not going to let anything hurt her. Especially not some fanged seductress with bad fashion sense.

“Anyway, she asked me to let her know if I see you, then she walked off. From there, I called LaFontaine and we followed her.”

“Yeah,” Laf chimes in. “You’ll never guess where she went.”

“Where?” Laura asks, intrigued.

“The Zeta building.”

“What?” Danny demands, not sure if she just heard correctly. “Does she think Laura would have spent the night with those dimwit jocks?” Laura raises her eyebrows at the thought.

“No, it was less like she was searching for Laura and more like she was on the warpath. She stomped right up to this dudebro and, well, it looked pretty violent. There was a lot of yelling. She was really pissed, but also, i don’t know, panic-y, almost?”

“Will, I think his name was Will,” Perry breaks in. “We couldn’t really hear what they were saying, mostly, but I recognized him. He was mad too, but in a different way. Like, a gross frat boy way. He started cracking up by the end. It was, horrible. Mean.”

Danny curses. “That sounds like Will. But why would Carmilla be talking to him?”

“Yeah,” interjects Laura, “when him and Kirsch invaded our room that one time, she was not happy. They seemed to hate each other.” Her head snaps up and she looks at Danny again. “You, you don’t think they’re in it together, do you? I don’t like him that much, but kidnapping girls? Kirsch is his best friend and I know he wouldn’t be into that.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t put it past him,” Danny says blandly. “Or any of the Zeta’s, for that matter. Frat boys are the worst, and Zeta Omega Mu is one of the worst fraternities I’ve ever seen. If he’s involved, though, it means this goes deeper than we think. This isn’t just some lone vampire snacking on study buddies.”

“We don’t know anything for sure yet,” Laura insists. Laf snorts in disbelief.

“Okay, Laura. I’m sure they were having a nice discussion about the campus pies and not, you know...” their voice turns into an over-the-top evil vampire parody. “ ‘Curses! Our current victim has escaped! However will we satisfy our monstrous appetites now?’ Wake up. He’s involved in this somehow.”

“Laf is right,” Danny says. She knows it must be hard to hear, since Laura likes to think everyone is completely innocent until proven guilty, and even then holds out hope. “You two should keep an eye on him as well. If he is involved, we need to know right away. And if he’s not, it won’t hurt.”

Laura whines for a little longer, but in the end she agrees. Before they sign off, Danny gives the other two the names of a few Summers who would be more than willing to keep tabs on a Zeta who might be involved in the disappearances.

One of their own has been taken, after all. This is about more than just keeping Laura safe. It’s also about getting the other girls back. _Or, if it’s too late for that,_ Danny thinks with a pang of guilt, _giving them the closure they deserve._ Her train of thought is interrupted by Laura yawning loudly.

“I can’t believe it’s only been a day since we left campus. And we only found out Carm is a vampire Monday! So much has happened, is still happening.” Maybe keeping Laura safe is all she can do right now.

“Well then,” Danny says fondly, ruffling her hair, “you should get some sleep. It’s almost 11, that’s past your bedtime!” Laura doesn’t make a face at her, like she was expecting. Instead, she looks down.

“Yeah. Sleep. That’s important,” she mumbles without any of her usual animation. All of a sudden she rubs her arms together harshly, like she’s trying to scrub a ghost off.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Something on your mind?” Laura sighs and suddenly pushes her face into Danny’s collarbone. Danny blinks and freezes for a moment before wrapping herself around her. “Hey, it’s okay. Do you want to talk about it?” she asks kindly.

She can feel Laura nod against her chest, so she uses her arms to position Laura into a less suffocating position, pulling her into her lap with her head resting just above Danny’s heart. She strokes Laura’s hair slowly with one hand and holds her tight with the other.

“It’s just, it’s like,” Laura attempts to begin, but she chokes a little. Knowing she might change her mind and not say anything, Danny waits patiently. She just wants Laura to know that she’s here for her. “I-I’m scared.” Danny tenses a little, but continues to softly hold her.

“Scared of Carmilla?” She murmurs against Laura’s ear. But she shakes her head.

“No—well, sort of I guess. Not directly. Right now, I’m scared to fall asleep. I don’t know what will happen if I do. I mean, it’s not just nightmares anymore. I could walk right out the door and do who-knows-what. I hate the idea of someone being able to take control of me like that.” She shivers even though the room is warm.

Danny understands. That’s why she is going to do everything in her power to make sure another screw up like that doesn’t happen again.

“Well, that’s valid, but listen.” She tilts Laura’s chin with her finger until they are making eye contact. “I’ve got you. I’m here, and I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you. Understand?” Laura nods.

Her tone lightens. “Remember what you said? That was our one mistake. We got it out of the way early, so now we’re golden.” A faint smile crosses Laura’s face, and Danny is relieved.

“I’ll tell you what. I think we have some sleep aids in the bathroom. Take one, get a shower, and by the time you’re done you’ll be ready to collapse into sweet oblivion.”

“Danny Lawrence, that is the most morbid description of sleeping pills I’ve ever heard,” she scoffs, pushing herself off of her lap into a standing position. Danny rolls her eyes good naturedly.

“Sorry, I just meant that you will sleep very peacefully, unaware of your surroundings. And I’ll be here on the couch, so if you do try to sneak out again, I’ll catch you and take away your car privileges for a month.”

Laura sticks out her tongue. “Jokes on you! I can’t drive. You really think my dad would let me behind the wheel of one of those ‘metal death traps,’ as he refers to them?” Danny snickers at her impression of her father.

“Fine, I’ll ground you from the internet for a week.”

“But then how would I do my homework?” Laura asks, batting her eyelashes innocently. She crosses her arms.

“Just go to bed, Hollis.”

A little over an hour later, when she can hear that Laura has subsided into sleep, she gets up. Yeah, that was a lie, she’s not going to spend the night on the couch.

Instead, she takes a blanket and pillow and, after making sure the front door is double-bolted, stretches out in front of the closed door of Laura’s room. The floor is uncomfortable, but it’s worth it to know that Laura can’t possessed-walk away again without literally running into Danny.

She stares ahead of her at the spot the carpet meets the wall and tries to force the dots to connect. Something, some piece of the puzzle, is missing, and without it she still doesn’t understand anything.

Why are they taking girls? Why five, and why only every twenty years? Who is ‘they’? Why did Carmilla give Laura and no one else a charm? How is Will involved? And most importantly: how are they going to beat whatever they’re up against once they do figure it out?

She doesn’t know.


	3. why are the brains and the brawn never together?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny and Laura are both very competitive, as it turns out.

Laura had her best night’s sleep in a while. Whether it was the sleep aid, or the distance away from campus, or the comfort in knowing that Danny was nearby on the couch, she slept the whole night through, which was a feat in itself.

She sits up and stretches, taking in her surroundings. She thinks this must be Danny’s parents’ room. Unlike the room she woke up in the day before, this one seems more sterilized, less lived in. Everything is white, from the pillows to the sheets to the walls, which are fairly bare.

Danny’s room had been much cozier, the green walls strewn with memorabilia and the smaller space mostly taken up by the many-blanketed bed and a dresser covered with photos of Danny and friends at various ages. There is only one immediately spottable photo here, on the nightstand.

Laura takes it into her hand, tracing the frame softly. There are four faces grinning into the camera from around a fire. Twelve-year-old Danny is proudly holding a marshmallow on a stick, and behind her, an older teen who looks exactly like her but with short hair is pretending to take a huge bite of it.

Smirking, Laura realizes that both Danny and her brother take after their father. The woman who must be her mom is the only one present who isn’t a ginger giant, but she has Danny’s eyes.

They all look so happy Laura wants to cry, which doesn’t make much sense. Maybe it’s because this is something she never got. She has her dad and he loves her, but seeing the Lawrences together, goofing off like this, makes her wish for the first time she had a sibling.

Her thoughts are interrupted by a noise just outside her door, and she tenses. What was that? The old house is eerily silent, so the smallest noise looms. Slowly, knowing it might be a bad idea but investigating anyway in true Laura Hollis fashion, she creeps to her door.

She hesitates, then swings it open suddenly. A large mass lying at the foot of her entrance laments the change through their sleep. It’s Danny. Sighing in relief, Laura kicks her affably.

“What are you doing here, you big lump?” She asks under her breath. Danny doesn’t respond other than to pull her blanket up more. Her blanket? She also has a pillow. The truth isn’t hard to deduct from there. She probably felt like the couch wasn’t close enough for her to keep an eye on her friend.

Laura tries to keep herself from being overrun by emotion at the gesture. “You’re an actual puppy, you know that Danny? A giant, six foot, adorable ginger puppy.” She deliberates on whether or not to wake her companion, then decides against it.

Danny would most likely be embarrassed about being found out. She can pretend she never noticed. Closing the door carefully so as to not disturb the sleeping beauty, she retreats back to her bed and attempts to fall back asleep.

Eventually, she hears Danny wake up and remove herself. Then, there are footsteps approaching down the hall, and hesitant knocking at her door.

“Laura? Are you awake yet?” Laura groans. Danny laughs. “Can I come in?” She grunts again, which she knows Danny will take as an invitation.

The door creaks inward and her friend strides in, plopping herself on the edge of her bed.

“Wake up sleepyhead, it’s almost 8 am and we have a lot to do today.” Laura turns so she is facing Danny but otherwise makes no motion of getting up.

“Five more minutes?” She croaks hopefully, not yet resigned to opening her eyes. Danny just shakes her head playfully. She reaches out with her pinky finger and carefully tickles the tip of Laura’s nose, which sends her shooting into a sitting position. 

“Alright, I’m awake!”

 

Her hair is a tangled mess and Danny instinctively goes to smooth it, but she stops herself. That would be a pretty romantic gesture. Her hand is already in the air, though. She can’t just leave it there. Panicking, Danny pushes Laura into the pillows and shoots toward the door while the brunette squawks.

“Last one to the kitchen has to wash the breakfast dishes!”

————————

Laf puts down their phone with exasperation.

“Great. Our very skilled, athletic, Danny-approved Summer Society chicks apparently just lost track of William Douchebro. Sure, they got suddenly press ganged by members of the Alchemy Club looking for volunteers for I don’t even want to know what, but that’s no excuse. One of them could’ve knocked the little weirdos down in a second.”

Perry adjusts the goggles she’s wearing. They don’t fit well, but Laf dragged her into the lab to do forensics on things from the vanishing girls’ rooms, and safety comes first for Per. Maybe if they just keep looking, they’ll find a common factor somewhere.

“I don’t think assault is very socially acceptable, LaFontaine. Besides, they’re going back to the Zeta house to wait, so he’ll be back under our radar in no more than a few hours, I’m sure.” She mutters something under her breath, probably yet another complaint about following a student without “real proof.”

As if there isn’t more than enough proof present for anyone who doesn’t suffer from a psychological need to have everything be _normal._ She might complain, but Laf also knows that if they ask her for help, she’ll do anything. That’s what best friends are for.

“At least the girls following Carmilla still have eyes on her. Apparently she’s not even hiding how crazy mad she is that Laura got away. She almost bit the head off of that kid from the Voice who tried to talk to her in the cafeteria. The great Pie-Night Exposé will have to wait.” Laf snickers.

There’s knocking at the door. They exchange a look with Perry, and she throws a sheet over the pile of objects they borrowed from SJ and Natalie. And the items they, er, _liberated_ from Elsie and Betty’s rooms. Keeping everything as under the radar as possible is imperative. Laf opens the door, and their jaw tightens when they see who is behind it.

“Will.” He’s leaning against the doorframe with a posture clearly designed to show off his muscles. “We’re kind of busy right now, but I’ll be sure to go to whatever party you’re here to advertise for.” They start to close the door, but Will shoves his arm through the gap and forces himself in.

“Oh, but I’m not here about tomorrow’s party.” His brow creases. “You will be going though, right?” He shakes his head. “Anyway, that’s not why I’m here.” He keeps stepping forward, shepherding Laf ahead of him. They glance at Perry desperately.

“So what brings you here, William?” She asks. His eyes are immediately drawn to the sheet-covered pile, and she moves her body in front of it non-subtly. Perry clears her throat and his stare snaps back up to her. It’s reptilian, without an ounce of humor, and Laf’s stomach drops seeing it aimed at Per. Then he blinks, and he’s back to his normal self.

“Laura, actually.” They both look at each other again. “I hear from Carmilla she’s gone missing, and that’s a shame. I would hate it if something awful happened to someone Miss Kitty is so fond of. And, as a Zeta Omega, I took a solemn oath to keep all the hotties of Silas safe. So of course, I know you two are her friends. Have you seen her?”

So he’s trying to play innocent and pump them for information. Laf relaxes marginally. Of course, they are still inching toward their phone. Once an abundance of Summers are here, they’ll actually feel better.

“No, I hadn’t even heard that she was gone. Do you think it’s like what happened to Betty?” Laf tries to sound as concerned for their friend as they can.

Will turns to look at her, an equally fake expression of worry on his face. “No, it’s not like that.” So, he’s all but confessing he was involved in the other disappearances. Great. They’re going to pretend to ignore that.

He takes another step toward Laf.

“Are you sure you don’t know _anything?_ If she’s in trouble, I want to help. With the full force of the Zeta’s backing you, we can solve anything.” His eyes pierce Laf, and they gulp. Perry chimes in.

“That would be amazing, but really, we don’t have anything to tell you. But if we do find something, you’ll be the first person we call. You promise you’ll be looking?” Laf stares at her in surprise. That was actually really good lying. When did she learn how to exploit sounding like a damsel in distress?

They take the brief opportunity while he assures Perry of his sincerity to take the last step to their phone. As charming as he is pretending to be, the air is charged with danger. And Laf doesn’t think it’s a coincidence his body language is conveying death threats.

He turns around suddenly and focuses in on them reaching for their device. His vapid attitude vanishes and his voice drops menacingly.

“See, the problem is that I don’t believe you. Why? Because Lawrence is gone too, and I know she’s too honorable to skip off during a crisis without telling her dear fellow dimwits.”

Laf is jolted by just how different he is. It’s like an entirely new person has taken over Will’s body—a person who likes to kick puppies for breakfast. They make a desperate grab for their phone but before they can move more than an inch he’s already snatched it up and retreated a few steps. He holds it up tauntingly.

“I think maybe it’s time we all drop our acts and have a nice chat. Just the three of us.”

————————

Danny splits another log with a single blow of her axe and adds the halves to the growing pile. Laura is sitting on the back porch, and she’s supposed to be doing a reading for class, but her mind is otherwise occupied.

Namely, staring not-so-subtly at her friend. It hadn’t been bad until Danny apparently warmed up and took off her jacket while cutting firewood, revealing yet another pair of guns in the already well-stocked cabin.

The shirt she’s wearing does not leave much to the imagination, and Laura wonders how she never noticed the ginger’s shoulder blades before. In fact, her whole back area is very...distracting.

“I still don’t get it,” she calls from under a thick scarf as long as she is tall. “How are you not freezing without your coat on?” Danny laughs and sets down another log to be chopped.

“It’s called exerting yourself physically, Laura. One of the staples of a healthy life, along with eating healthy.” Laura makes a face at her and takes another sip of her marshmallow-laden cocoa.

“It sounds awful. I’ll take enjoying my life and dying at thirty.” As Danny raises the axe again, she tries and fails to tear her gaze away. At this rate she’ll never finish her homework.  
……….

“Put your coat back on Danny.” The girl in question looks up, confused by her flat tone. Laura gets up from her seat and unwinds her scarf. “You’re going to need it.”

Danny sets down the axe as Laura approaches her.

“And what am I needing it for?” She lets the question trail. Instead of answering, Laura walks directly up to her and places her hands on Danny’s shoulders. Danny doesn’t move a muscle, instead looking down at her companion slowly.

Laura smiles back up at her endearingly. Then pushes her suddenly. Completely caught off guard, Danny topples backward and lands in the snow. She gasps and tries to fling some white fluff in retaliation, but Laura is already racing away into the woods gleefully.

“You don’t know what you’ve started, Laura,” she yells while brushing snow off her rear. “I’m a ruthless hunter, and I played varsity softball in high school. You’re going down!” Grabbing her coat, she follows the smaller girl with evil intentions.

Two hours and countless snowballs later, Danny thinks victory is near. It’s harder than she thought. While she is an expert at tracking Laura down, the girl uses her small size to great advantage, hiding in places Danny doesn’t even consider.

She swears the girl is a shapeshifter with some of the places she crams herself into. Maybe it’s just the yoga. However, the ginger herself is an unstoppable machine. Laura may be able to pop off a shot or so in sneak attacks, but the tides are in Danny’s favor when it comes to open interactions.

Right now, she is stalking her prey back near the cabin, where Danny set up a fort. It’s leaned up against the shed, with a tunnel entrance facing the woods. From the right angle, it looks like just another part of the white landscape.  
……….

As for Laura, she has climbed onto this shed by means of a wheelbarrow, some fencing, and a conveniently placed window ledge all located on the other side. It’s high enough to be mostly above Danny’s impressively high field of vision, and she smirks to herself. Danny may think she is the hunter, but in reality, she is the prey.  
……….

Danny knows exactly where Laura is. Of course, she may have an unfair advantage, but she is going to shamelessly going to exploit it to win. So, she allows herself to creep past the shed, appearing to play right into Laura’s trap

There’s a truly terrifying war cry from above her, and she looks up in time to see a flying blur carrying an armful of snow. Danny is faster than gravity, though, not to mention more prepared. She effortlessly steps to the side and catches Laura in her arms.

Then, before the tiny warrior knows what’s happening, Danny slams her into what was her fort. Now it’s a mangled pile of crumbled snow and limbs. From somewhere within the depths, Laura moans.

Ever the gentlewoman, Danny helps her up and smugly brushes snow off of her. It doesn’t do much, because literally every inch of Laura is covered in snow. She’s coughing in outrage and attempting to pull snow from down her back, but only providing an opening for more to fall in.

“What the heck was that?” She manages. Her voice is doing that high pitched thing that happens whenever she gets indignant, and Danny is laughing so hard she’s crying. “How did you know where I was? I saw your face, you weren’t surprised to see me at all,” she accuses, and Danny has to take a break from cackling like a madwoman.

“The same way I found you in the woods, Hollis.” She leans in teasingly. “I’m just that good.” Laura is unhappy with this answer and pushes her mockingly.

“Oh great. Had I known your ego was this big I would’ve just let Carmilla eat me. Now I’m stuck in a cabin with you.” She begins stomping her way toward the cabin, apparently giving up on the idea of trying to remove the snow from herself.

“Come on, Laura!” Danny calls after her, cupping her arms around her mouth. “You know you love me!” She freezes, and unless her imagination is playing tricks on her, Laura flinches as well. Why did she have to put her foot in her mouth like an idiot?

She just meant as friends. She is ninety-five percent sure that is a phrase friends say to each other. But it could be taken another way entirely considering the blurred lines of their relationship. Before she can say anything, Laura turns around and pouts.

“Whatever, Danny. It’s hard to love someone who pushes you into snow and doesn’t even feel bad.” Danny exhales her breath.

“You jumped off of a roof to attack me!”

Laura refuses to acknowledge her fault, and continues to sulk until Danny promises to make her more cocoa, which is ridiculous. In the end, however, Danny succumbs to her demands, muttering about her being made mostly out of sugar by this point.

She places the steaming mug of chocolate in front of her drying friend before taking the seat across the table.

“So, how do you feel about board games?” Laura’s face lights up.

“Do you have Scrabble?” She asks eagerly. “I am the God of Scrabble.” Danny laughs at that.

“Sure you are, Laura. But yes, we have Scrabble, along with an assortment of other family classics such as Life, Boggle, Settlers of Catan, and of course, Monopoly.”

“Settlers of Catan? I love it, but I never have anyone to play it with. My dad quit for good when I was fourteen and had a nine game winning streak.”

“Well, what a coincidence, because my dad used to mercilessly crush everyone. But, if you’re five years out of practice, I might just stand a chance.” She winks and Laura raises her eyebrows, her competitive spirit already rising.

“I can’t wait to remind you of what you just said when I cut off your roads and build my third city. Unlike the snowball incident, your height can’t help you here.” She sips her cocoa confidently.

Laura moves herself to the living room while Danny fetches the games. She checks her phone. Nothing to report. Mind on autopilot, she sets it on the shelf without thought before picking up several boxes and making her way back.

One game each of Scrabble and Catan, and approximately four rounds of monopoly later, they’re both exhausted. Danny was absolutely demolished in Scrabble. She can’t believe it, but Laura is not exaggerating her skills. She is out of this world.

At least she held her own in Settlers of Catan. In fact, she is sure that she would have won if Laura wasn’t obviously cheating. She insisted that Danny was just bitter and blaming her for bad luck, but she isn’t convinced. There’s still some skepticism about Laura’s usage of those development cards.

And monopoly was a disaster. No one likes that game. It tears families apart, and if anything, makes Danny want to opt for revolution. So, given Laura’s questionable reputation from the other games, it took one mention of ‘house rules’ before Danny decided to take action. She “accidentally spilled Laura’s drink” with an “erratic sweep of her arm” and into the garbage the monopoly man went. Good riddance.

She comes back into the living room and stretches down on the floor with Laura. Their bodies are facing opposite directions, her head brushing the much shorter girls hip. She stares at the ceiling, which has a map of Styria painted on it.

“When I was younger, I used to think that if you fought off everyone else, you could make your own country. I would look at this map and argue with my brother about which parts we would take over.”

From somewhere near her stomach, she feels Laura turn her head to look at her. “Really?” she asks. The evening light casts shadows on both of them.

“Yeah. I was going to build my castle right...there.” She points at a spot in the far north. “I think my brother let me have that one because he knew how freezing it would be there. What a jerk.”

Danny lets her arm fall slowly, and Laura catches it then rests it on her stomach and fiddles with her fingers. It’s only six, but they’re both so tired. That’s a bad thing, because it means Danny’s defenses are lowered. Who knows what she might say, only to regret later.

“I should put the games away.” Laura doesn’t say anything, nor does she relinquish her hold on Danny’s hand. She wants to keep lying there, she wants it so bad her chest hurts. But she can’t. Not right now.

“Seriously, I’m going.” She sits up, and with a little grumbling, so does Laura. She stacks the boxes up and heads to the hallway closet they came from. Opening the door, her attention is caught by her phone.

The screen is lit up with notifications. Worry seizes her heart, and she lunges for it.

**Ten missed calls from Tiffany Gomez.**

They’re from one of the Summers she had on Will-surveying duty. Her throat tightens as she puts the games down and dials back. The other girl picks up on the first ring.

“Danny? Oh thank goodness, I was so worried. We were pretty much about to storm the Zeta building.” Her voice muffles, like she’s talking to someone away from the phone. “Guys, Danny picked up! Hold off on the arrows. For now.”

“Tiffany, what the hell is happening over there?” She practically yells it, and Laura comes in from the other room, concern written across her face.

“Um, so me and Regan and Callisto were following Will Luce, like you told us too. But then some freaks from the Alchemy Club came up and kept asking us to give blood for an experiment.”

Danny closes her eyes. “Please tell me you didn’t say yes.” In her heart, she hopes that’s all this is, a call for some stupid trouble they got themselves into with the Alchemy club.

“Of course not! But by the time we got away from this, we had lost sight of Will.” Her heart sinks. No such luck. “And, and we called Laf and they told us to go back to the Zeta building and wait for him. But he didn’t come back. We waited for two hours. Then Reg got a call from the group that was trailing Carmilla. Apparently LaFontaine and Perry wouldn’t respond to them and they wanted to know if we had heard anything.”

Danny’s grip on the phone tightens. Laura tugs on her arm inquisitively, but she just mouths “It’s a Sister.” She still doesn’t know what’s happening.

“Get to the point Tiff.” She’s trying to keep her voice calm and gentle, because the younger girl sounds really upset, but her own patience is hanging by its last threads.

“Well we hadn’t heard anything either, so me and Cal decided to go check on them in the lab while someone from the other group went to their dorms. And we got to the lab, and, and they weren’t there. But they used to be.”

“What do you mean ‘used to be’?” There’s a moment of hesitation, then Tiffany’s voice drops to a whisper.

“Danny, they got taken. There was a big mess, like there had been a fight. And they weren’t at their dorms.” She sounds close to crying, which matches Danny’s feelings. Her head spins and for a second she thinks she’s going to puke.

“Was—was there a note? Like, a multiple choice note?” Laura’s head snaps up, and she grabs Danny’s arm again, this time with a steel grip.

“No.” Tiffany sounds surprised at the question.

“Are you sure? One hundred percent sure?” She asks urgently. Tiffany affirms it, saying they checked the scene for anything that wasn’t science equipment and came up short. “Wait, nothing? Nothing from, say, a girl’s dorm?”

“No. There was just a bunch of broken beakers, plus the sideways microscope, and I think Perry’s phone? It’s password protected, but the lockscreen is of like a fifties housewife advertisement thing.”

Danny swallows. No note. And none of what she knows Laf and Perry were doing experiments on. Which means, they weren’t taken like the others? They must have been onto something, or...her heart twists. Is this somehow connected to Laura getting away?

She doesn’t know. And if there’s one thing Danny hates, it’s not knowing something while her friends are in danger. She takes a deep breath and forces herself to focus.

“Alright, Tiffany, I need you to listen to me very carefully. Rouse up the rest of the Summers, and spread out across campus in shifts. I want groups of no less than five, with at least one lieutenant per two groups. Carry walkie talkies, and get as much garlic as you can.”

Laura hasn’t let go of Danny’s arm yet and her grip tightens even further at the mention of garlic. Danny ignores her until she is done giving instructions. First priority, find Laf and Perry. A close second: if they see either Carmilla or William, catch them. Alive.

As much as it pains her, Danny knows they need information more than revenge. It’s no use to kill the vamps if it doesn’t get any girls back. First SJ and Natalie; then Betty and Elsie, who are still gone even though it’s been well more than a few days.

“Danny, please, what’s going on?” Laura snaps her out of her reverie, and she realizes it’s been a few seconds since she hung up and she hasn’t said anything. She looks at her friend in the dim light and sees she has tears in her eyes. And she doesn’t even know yet.

“Laura…” Danny pulls her into a hug. She wishes she could protect her from this somehow, but there’s no way to. Besides, Laura’s an adult. Better to just tell her outright. From her hug, she confides in a low voice, “Laf and Perry have gone missing. There are signs of a struggle in their last known location.”

Laura sobs and Danny thinks her knees must’ve given out because she is sinking all of a sudden, they both are, and soon they’re on their knees, holding onto each other so tightly it leaves bruises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> is anyone even reading this? if not, i guess that's cool, because i'm having fun writing it. but hey, feel free to leave me feedback if you want to


	4. vacation's over lmao, time to suffer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> let's address everyone's personal issues! also we get carmilla's perspective finally, and she's not happy

“Students of Silas...Please.” With that, Laura turns off the camera and uploads her latest video to the school’s aethernet. It’s been one hour and forty-two minutes since she found out her two best friends were missing, and right now, she doesn’t feel anything.

As in, there is a very specific absence of feeling. Her whole body and mind is numb. Except for the pain. Everything hurts, which is the same as nothing hurting, right?

She didn’t let herself cry for as long as she wanted. She needs to focus on helping them in any way she can. So, when Danny went off to facetime her Summers and give them more instructions, Laura did the only thing she could think of. Make a video—which was where this whole mess started out.

In the video, she was careful what information to give away. Just that Laf and Perry had been kidnapped, and Will and Carmilla were the suspects.

She also asked for anyone who might know anything to contact her or the Summer Society, who would be out patrolling. And if they see either of the two, they should report it and run away. No more casualties.

Laura thought that sending out a video would make her feel better. It’s doing something, at least. But if anything, it’s only heightened her sense of uselessness.

She is stuck in this cabin while everyone else is out there risking their lives. Why should she be any different? Her life isn’t worth any more than anyone else's. Certainly not more than Laf and Perry. Deep down, Laura just _can’t_ stay put in safety like everyone wants her to. 

Of course, she knows Danny won’t go for it. She’s going to try to convince her anyway. This is her life, and she’ll be damned if she lets anyone else make her decisions for her. Even if they are mysteriously good at everything. She gets up and heads to the backyard, where she knows Danny is.

She’s surprised at herself. At how calm she is. Her tears seem to have dried up and now all that’s left is a burning sensation where her heart should be. The cool air rushes to meet her as she pushes through the back door, and she marvels at how fast night has fallen. It’s not even 8 yet, but the crescent moon is already peeping through the trees.

She spies Danny by her fiery hair. She’s pacing near the woods and doesn’t seem to be taking a call right now, so Laura marches right up to her. The reflecting snow casts a surreal light, turning everything vaguely monstrous. A perfect fit for Laura’s mood.

“Danny.” The taller girl looks up from her thoughts. Her face is drawn with worry and stress, and she looks like she’s been crying. Laura knows she should care about that but she just doesn’t. Not when Laf and Perry are so much worse off and it’s her own fault. Laura crosses her arms.

“Take me back to the school, Danny.”

————————

Kirsch is worried. It’s almost 5:30 and it’s a Thursday. That means it’s buffalo wings night in less than two hours, and his best bro is still nowhere to be found. Whatever Will’s gotten himself into, he wouldn’t miss buffalo wings night.

Right? Unless he’s forgotten...but this is Will. He never forgets Thursday nights. Maybe he’s in trouble. Kirsch smacks his forehead. Of course! First all those chicks, now Will? Is no hottie safe?

Just yesterday he’d tried to find Danny to talk about dividing the duties of escorting girls around campus. But she wasn’t anywhere to be found, which made him really down. Even if she is ready to fight all the time, she’s still a babe.

So then he’d gone to Laura to ask where Psycho Society was, because they’re a thing, he thinks, but Laura wasn’t in her dorm either! Of course he thought they might be on a nice lady date together, but he ran into that chick with the really curly hair—Perry, and she said they were missing.

That’s when Kirsch started to worry. Two hotties disappearing without a trace? That’s a real problem. If they keep disappearing, there won’t be any hotties left on campus!

And just now, he had gone to the Summers to see if they knew anything. They’d freaked on him, which was totally Uncool. But then again, he’d be pretty on edge if a Zeta went missing. Like Will is. He sighs. Everything sucks. The Summer chicks kicked him out of their territory with lots of threats against the Zetas. Apparently they think they’re responsible for taking the girls.

Which is crazy! The Zeta’s are all about protecting hotties. It makes no sense to think they’d hurt them. But then one of the Amazon babes ran up to him as he was leaving and told him everyone was freaking because Per-bear and Laf had disappeared around the same time as Will! It’s nuts!

So now he’s looking for the only person he can think of who isn’t missing (other than SJ, who he had called to make sure was safe with Natalie). Laura’s scary sexy roommate who wears leather all the time. So now he’s wandering the campus looking for her. Maybe he should go to her room. That’s a great idea! He high fives himself and starts walking in that direction.

————————

**6:15 pm. No notifications**

“Going somewhere?” Carmilla looks up from her phone in annoyance at the voice who interrupted her. The evening light is slanting off of a group of five Summer Society girls. She doesn’t know why they’re talking to her, and she doesn’t care.

She gives them her best sneer and moves to barrel past them. Then stops short as the last rays of sunlight reflect off of a knife one of the girls pulls out. Perhaps they should be studied more seriously.

They have an assortment of weapons, from a bat to the knife to one girl holding up a long coiled up rope. Also, they appear to be mostly underclassmen. Babies. She glances at the setting sun again and does a quick calculation. She’ll be fine, but the longer she can delay them the closer night draws and the more her strength rises.

“Alright, cuties. You’ve got my attention.” She honest to goodness has no idea why they’ve stopped her. Maybe it’s part of their campaign against the Zeta’s. Maybe they’re idiots who felt like picking a fight. Either way, they chose the wrong person to mess with.

The tallest girl steps forward. Carmilla sniffs curiously. She reeks of fear. That’s odd for someone holding a quarterstaff. Maybe they do have some level of awareness of what they’re getting themselves into.

“Listen. Just tell us where you took them and we won’t hurt you.” She really is terrified, and not just of Carmilla. She seems scared of every shadow. Which is good. The world is a scary place, and Carmilla is part of what makes it that way.

The vampire barks a short laugh, then tilts her head challengingly. Inside, worms of worry are starting to appear. If they’re asking her about the missing girls, that means something has gone awry, and it looks like she is about to take the blame for it.

“And who am I supposed to have taken?” She drawls in her most uncaring voice.

Her impatience is starting to rise. Perhaps she should just finish the girls and walk away. But no, not only would that cause attention she doesn’t particularly care for at the moment, she also needs to know why they’ve singled her out. How vexing.

The girl lowers her staff at Carmilla in an amusing attempt at intimidation.  
“You know who we’re talking about. Elsie. Betty. Lafontaine and Lola Perry.”

Now the raven-haired girl feels herself start to be intrigued. Mad Scientist and Housewife are on the list of the missing, but not Laura Hollis? She begins to wonder just what this girl knows, and precisely what she would have to do to her to extract that information.

Half of her didn’t believe Will when he claimed he had nothing to do with her roommates sudden disappearance, but now it seems he might have been telling the truth. A tiny spark of hope flares in her chest, followed by a bigger shard of worry. If Laura wasn’t taken as a sacrifice, where did she go?

One of the other four snaps her fingers, interrupting Carmilla’s train of thought. The one with the knife. She gestures at her with it.

“Are you zoning out or something, vamp?”

Vamp? Okay, now they have her undivided attention. She becomes aware of something she hadn’t noticed before. The smell of garlic. She bares her teeth. Oh, this is the opposite of perfect. Time to leave, questions be damned. She is not about to be staked by a bunch of dimwit children. She starts to back up, eyeing them haughtily.

“If you know what I am you should know better than to think you can overpower me with this measly amount. This is like a snack to me.” There’s a sinister hiss from her left and Carmilla turns just in time to snatch an arrow out of the air.

It has a silver tip. She scans the darkness it came from, which isn’t dark at all to her feline eyes. They brought backup. Of course. Suddenly there’s a crack and her right arm explodes with pain. Her attention snaps back to her front and she sees the leader coming in for another swing with her staff.

Fast as lightning, she grabs it with her left hand and stops the blow completely. She can feel herself getting more powerful as the sun slips away completely. Her arm is throbbing, but that won’t stop her.

As the girls watch with wide eyes, she snaps the heavy stick in half with her hand. She doesn’t have time for this, and she knows it won’t be long before the hidden archer tries again. Unless she moves so they can’t shoot without risk of hitting one of their friends.

Her anger fuels her, and she attacks without warning. Just enough so she can get away, she reminds herself as she throws her first punch, knocking out staff girl. It will cause her a lot of trouble if one of these idiots dies, even though _they_ came after _her._

The kid with the knife puts a laughable attempt into stabbing her, and she deflects the blow with ease, letting her momentum carry her into Carmilla’s arms. Then, with her handy super strength, she swings the girl with a cry and slams her into one of her friends.

She raises her hand for a finishing blow, but it’s suddenly yanked away. Shit. Apparently the rope wasn’t just for show, and the girl wielding it was a cowboy in a former life, because she’s lassoed Carm’s wrist.

She snarls and pulls viciously on the rope, but just as the girl loses her balance another one appears out of nowhere and slices at her. Her dodge is made ineffective by the tangle of the rope and her cheek gets cut. She sends the offending Summer flying with a well-placed kick.

Then, before she can make her escape, there’s blinding pain in her calf. She looks down to see that knife girl has stabbed her. Goddamnit! Furious, she rips the knife out of her hands. For a second, Carm almost loses control and tears them all apart.

But another arrow speeding past her shoulder reminds her that she can’t. She just needs to get away, and the vampire thinks she’s cleared enough room now. So, fighting the bloodlust that is already rising, she sprints away. More arrows follow, but then she turns a corner and is out of view.

She spies a building to hide in and catches her breath. Well shit. This is bad. Somehow, her vampiric origins have been revealed. And of course everyone decided to grab their pitchforks and go after her! This is like 1735 all over again. She closes her eyes and forces herself to focus.

Think. Where can she go. To Maman? The dean will be most displeased at this situation, and with any luck, she’ll sort it out. Carmilla shudders. Without luck, she might throw Carmilla to the Summers, or worse. This is really really bad.

Her eyes are still closed when a hand suddenly lands on her shoulder. In less time than it takes to blink, she has the offender pushed against the nearest wall with their arm twisted behind their back.

“Whoa! Why are you always trying to hurt me, sexy lady?” She relaxes. Kirsch. William’s pet human, who is really more like a dog. He’s irritating, but harmless.

“What do you want,” she hisses, letting go of him. He turns around, massaging his injured arm.

“I just came to see if you knew where everyone was. Your roommate and her whole hottie friend group have gone missing,” he groans. “No need to assault me.”

She quirks an eyebrow. Maybe Kirsch isn’t as clueless as he looks, if he knows more about who’s missing than she does. Or maybe that just makes her especially inadequate. She grinds her teeth in frustration. She hates not knowing precisely what is going on, and right now she is completely in the dark because she’d wasted the day looking for Laura by herself.

“You mean how Laf and Perry are now missing too?”

“Yeah! And Danny’s been gone just as long as Laura, apparently. And the last time I saw Will was just before 3. He’s missing buffalo wings night!”

She narrows her eyes as everything clicks into place. Laura and Danny vanish at the same time. Then, a few days later, their most trusted friends along with her murderous brother, after she tells him the only person she’s cared about in more than a century has disappeared.

She’s an idiot. Laura was never in danger. She must have found out her roommate was a vampire and did the smart thing and run away. With her redheaded protector. How romantic. Carmilla feels a deep and familiar pang in her heart.

She was silly to think that Laura would have believed she was anything but a monster. Laura, with her wonder-filled eyes and her stupidly trusting personality. She curses herself for ever entertaining the possibility that the pure hearted journalist would ever see her and not be filled with fear and loathing.

This is exactly like...well, let’s just say she had been down this route before.

Her mother’s voice fills her head, reminding her of every horrible thing she’s ever done, and how no outsider could possibly love her for it. The list could go on for centuries. In fact, it already has. Kirsch steps in front of her, snapping her out of her despair.

That’s right. Laura might not have been in danger before, but thanks to Carmilla, now she is. Because she knows Will, and she knows exactly what he wants from the ginger twins. All she has to figure out is where he took them.

“Kirsch. Where exactly did you last see William?” He still hasn’t seemed to connect the dots of why Will is missing, faithful idiot that he is.

“Uhh, he told me he was going to talk to the mom-like chick and her science friend, then left. That was by the monument of the freaky human-bull hybrid. Oh! Do you think he was with them when they got kidnapped and that’s why he got taken too?”

Carmilla sighs. She doesn’t have the brain space to explain to him that his best friend is a heartless devil. But if that was by the Gugalanna statue, then Will would most likely be...oh. Of course.

It got torn down in the 60’s, but there used to be a building right where that statue is. The basements are still there, though no current students or staff know about their existence. She looks out the window of the building and doesn’t see any Summers.

“Come on Kirsch, we’ve got two hotties to rescue.”

In a few minutes they’re at the statue. They avoided the patrols out hunting for Carmilla by the skin of their teeth, and she makes Kirsch stay above ground to keep watch. Walking to the back of the statue, she spots a familiar ring in the ground and pulls with all her strength. Slowly, the trapdoor opens, creaking far too noisily for her taste.

Whatever. If Will is really down there, now he knows he’s got company. And since no humans are strong enough to lift the door, he knows who it is, too. She braces herself for a second, then skips the ladder and drops straight through the hole onto the concrete twenty feet below. Time to get this over with.

There’s a brief silence after her loud entrance, then she hears muffled crying, like someone with a gag over their mouth. She knows that noise too well.

All senses on full alert, she creeps forward. There’s no sign of William yet, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a trap. The pleas seem to coming from an old broom closet just ahead. Carmilla takes a moment and holds her breath, listening for any noise that betrays the presence of her brother.

A couple hundred yards away, some mice. That’s it. She let’s out her breath. Everything in her body screams that this is a trap, but she ignores it.

She needs to get to Laura as soon as possible. Because if her twisted sibling isn’t here, it means he got the information he wanted and has already left.

She pops the rusted lock off the door without a problem and swings it open. Inside, a piteous sight greets her. The one with the short hair, Lafontaine, is tied up and gagged. He didn’t bother with a gag for their friend. She’s unconscious with heavy bruises all over and her frizzy hair is matted with blood.

Even Carmilla’s cold heart feels sympathy for them. It gets worse when they register who has come to save them. The awake one’s eyes are full of hope for a single moment, then it crashes away and all that’s left is more fear.

The vampire feels her throat tighten. Of course they’re scared. To them, she’s the big bad vampire, here to finish her brother’s job.

Gently, slowly, she lowers herself to their level. Laf, despite their bonds, force themself in front of Perry, eyes now transitioning from fear to defiance. Carm swallows.

“I’m here to help,” she whispers as non threateningly as she can. They don’t appear to believe her. “Kirsch sent me. I heard that Will kidnapped you, and I came to rescue you. Come on, Laura needs us.” At the mention of Kirsch, they hesitate.

Carmilla takes the chance. She reaches forward carefully, still keeping her voice baby soft.

“I’m going to untie you now, okay?” The battered ginger nods slowly. In a few deft movements, Carm has them freed, and then unties Perry while they watch distrustfully.

“Why are you doing this? You’re a vampire after all,” they accuse. Carmilla sighs. She has no justification that will make sense to them. Just the desperate feeling that she needs to save Laura. Even though the tiny blonde hates her for what she is.

“It’s complicated. Now I need you to tell me what happened. What did William want?” At the mention of him, the scientist’s face crumples.

“Oh God, I—I betrayed them. I wasn’t even supposed to know where they were, but, but I _needed_ to know, in case anything went wrong, so I, I,” they start sobbing. Carmilla isn’t sure what to do. Sympathy has never been her strong suit, and now she’s getting the sense that the ginger did something awful.

“What did you do?” She asks, doing her best to keep her growing panic out of her voice. Laf looks up from behind their hands.

“I tracked them. I tracked Danny’s phone. So I knew where she was, but I wasn’t supposed to know, because—well, for this exact reason! Carm, I really screwed everything up. He’s going after them, he left about hour ago.”

Carmilla’s heart feels like it’s stopped, which is ridiculous because it hasn’t even beat in over three hundred years. This is bad. Will left an hour ago? How far away are they even? For all she knows, it could be too late. She stands up sharply, then winces. Her leg is still healing from the stabbing.

“Tell me where Laura is.” It’s not a question.

————————

“Take me back to the school, Danny.” Laura’s voice is quiet, but it hits the ginger like a wall. She stops pacing and puts her arms in the air like she’s trying to calm a wild animal.

“What? Look, I know you want to help everyone, but we can’t go back right now. We need to keep you safe.”

Laura scoffs. She’s really getting sick of being treated like a fragile vase, locked away in the attic under layers of newspaper. Somehow, Danny seems to have forgotten that Laura is the one who started all this. She has never been just a bystander and she’s not going to start now.

“Everything that’s going on right now, it’s my fault. And I can’t just stand and watch while everyone else tries to fix my mess, okay? You can keep me safe while I’m at Silas. I just, I can’t stay here and be the princess locked away in her tower. That’s not me.”

Danny runs her hands through her hair in frustration. Clearly she is still trying to think of a way to convince Laura to stay. Too bad. Laura has made her mind up. Unfortunately, so has her companion.

“If I take you back now, it’ll undo everything we’ve done, Laura! We’ve only come as far as we have because no one knows where you are. Because, yeah, you got yourself involved in this mess. And now you’re a target.” Laura’s pent up frustration boils over.

“Well I’m not the only target anymore!” She screams, loud enough to silence the noises of the nighttime for a moment. “Laf and Perry got taken! Which is exactly what we were worried about happening to me!”

The tall girl shakes her head. Why can’t Danny see it, why can’t she understand what Laura’s trying to say? If she had been there, her friends wouldn’t have been hurt. She can’t stay here if it means more people getting hurt.

“Yeah, and this is crap! But you going back isn’t going to undo any of that. It will only put you at more risk, without getting Laf and Perry back.” She tries to put her hands on Laura’s shoulders, but the blonde shakes her off.

“It might.” Her voice is small now. Danny looks at her in confusion, and Laura sighs. Honestly, has Danny not noticed the obvious yet? “Look, they got kidnapped because I was gone, right? So if I go back, we could—” she doesn’t know how to finish the sentence. Luckily, understanding dawns in Danny’s wide blue eyes.

“We are not going to offer you up in return for them.” Her voice is adamant. Unwavering. Laura massages her temple.

“Why not? It’s simple math. Two lives for one.” She can’t keep the desperation out of her voice. She needs an answer to this question, because this isn’t the first time she’s had to ask it. She needs to know why everyone seems to think her life is more valuable than anyone elses.

“That’s not how it works. You can’t just sacrifice yourself for someone else, Laura.” Danny’s voice has gone soft, and there seems to be uncertainty creeping in. Laura looks up.

“If I was the one taken, would you give yourself up for me?” She knows Danny would. They both do.

“That’s different!”

“How? Because it’s me? Because that would be _your_ decision? Well guess what Danny, this is my decision, not yours! It’s my life, not yours! And you can’t assign values to people’s lives just because you lo—because you know them more than others!”

Danny had opened her mouth to form a rebuttal, but she stops when Laura almost says the thing. The thing that they both know is at the heart of the issue. Danny is doing this because she loves Laura and doesn’t want to lose her.

However she means that love, it doesn’t matter. Laura is special to her in some way, and she thinks that gives her the right to keep her safe at the cost of anyone else. But it doesn’t. And if she doesn’t figure that out soon, Laura doesn’t think she can be with her.

But they can’t say that out loud, even though they’re both thinking it, which frustrates Laura even more. She just, she knows she can make Danny understand, if she finds the right words and says them at the right time, in the right way.

“You’re not my keeper, Danny.” She’s trying to sound comforting, because the first step is to get Danny to hear what she’s saying and actually listen, instead of viewing everything she says as a blow that needs to be parried. She wants to have a conversation, not an argument.

“You’re my friend. Not my protector. Not my guardian. My peer. You aren’t my boss. This is my life, and while your suggestions are appreciated, it’s still my decision.” She raises her hand to Danny’s cheek and searches her eyes. They’re conflicted. “Please.”

The taller girl shakes her head.

“But you’re going to make the wrong decision, Laura,” she whispers. That’s it. That’s the line. Clearly Danny is too star-crossed to see the truth, and Laura doesn’t want to be any part of a relationship like that. She can’t even find the will in her to keep trying anymore.

Sure, Danny may be able to physically keep her here, but that doesn’t mean Laura will forgive her for it. And if the tall Summer decides that dictating her friend’s safety is worth more to her than the friendship itself, or whatever they might have been, Laura can’t stop her.

So, instead of saying anything, she turns and walks back into the house. Danny calls after her, but she doesn’t look back. There’s no need to. She can already imagine just what Danny’s heartbroken face looks like. After all, she has a matching one.

————————

The car ride to the cabin has been tense. Carmilla is driving, and the ginger dimwits are in the backseat. Perry seems to be doing better under her friend’s ministration, and she’s awake now. They’ve been on the road for an hour and she’s yet to speak to them, or vice versa. She clears her throat uncomfortably, setting down her travel mug of blood.

“Are you two going to be okay when we get there?”

She would have been fine leaving them behind, but the only way for her to convince them to even spill the location was to let them come. As if they could stop her if her intentions turn out to be evil. But then again, in their shoes, she would want to come too.

“Yeah.” That was Laf, who looks awful. She can only imagine what’s going on in their head. She already hates herself for being the one to tell Will Laura was missing, but that was at least sort of on accident. They gave her up knowing full well what it would mean.

Not that Carmilla blames them. She knows Will, and she knows what awful things he is capable of. Especially if he has someone you love. She sighs.

“It’s not your fault, kiddo.”

Laf looks up in surprise. Their face clouds with anger. Anger directed at themself.

“Yes it is. First I lied to Danny and tracked her despite her warnings. Then I told him where the others were. I betrayed them.”

“Yeah, but I’m assuming there was a reason? You didn’t just suddenly decide you wanted to give them up, did you?”

“No! I—he—he hurt Perry. He just kept hurting her, and then he was going to kill her. I just couldn’t let that happen, even if it meant…I didn’t care about the consequences. I just couldn’t let her die.”

Now that’s a sentiment Carmilla understands. The feeling that the whole world could burn and you wouldn’t care, as long as your love stays safe. But sometimes, the world just burns. They die anyway, and you get locked underground for decades.

“You did what you had to to save the person you love. No one will fault you for that. It’s what started this whole situation, isn’t it? And besides. There’s one thing you need to know. I mean it, remember this, no matter what happens tonight. Even when it hurts and you want to hate yourself more than anything in the world: Don’t. This isn’t on you. Will is the only monster here. Well, and maybe me.”

She flashes a fanged grin in the rearview mirror. The scientist, instead of flinching away, chuckles.

“You know, you’re pretty cool for a vampire.” They tilt their head thoughtfully. “Or maybe that’s what most undead are like, and Will’s just a jerk. I don’t want to be species-ist.” Carmilla smirks. _Species-ist?_

“Trust me, Will is the norm. He’s like what I used to be. And we’re nothing compared to our mother.” Her smile fades. She’s no saint herself.

Her past is littered with ruined lives, too many for anyone to overlook. Mad scientist in the backseat may not be struck with terror at the mention of her diet, but it they knew her whole story, they would undoubtedly run. Whatever. It’s not like she’s doing this with the hopes of changing anyone’s mind. She just wants to save Laura from the mess she got her into.

Perry stirs. She’s been staring quietly out of the window the whole ride, unresponsive to everything except whatever Laf murmurs to her. But now, she looks straight at Carm.

“We forgot to call Laura and Danny. They don’t know Will is coming after them. Does anyone have a phone?”

There’s exactly one second of silence, then all hell breaks loose within the car. Laf is yelling and searching their pockets desperately. Carmilla is saying some very unrepeatable things at herself while slamming her hand on the steering wheel.

“I’m such an idiot! We’re all idiots! Is this what happens when people hang out with you? Their IQ just drops automatically once they step within a certain range?! I can’t believe it! I’m part of the dimwit squad!”

Her own phone is with Kirsch, because his died and he wanted to check up on SJ while Carm was searching the basement for the dynamic duo. And Laf and Perry’s would have been taken by Will, of course. If only she hadn’t insisted on leaving right away, without bothering to take the time to make an actual plan.

“What about Kirsch? He’ll tell people that we’re okay, and then someone will think to contact Danny, yeah? Maybe one of the Summers?” Perry suggests.

Carmilla isn’t so sure. She’s been on this campus long enough to know that communication has never been a strong point, especially not between Zetas and the Summer Society. By this point, the fraternity is probably already starting a riot over who should lead the campus-wide searches.

“Maybe. I’m not turning this car around to find out. We’ll just have to hope for the best. Laf, how far away from this cabin are we?” The short-haired ginger does some quick calculations in their head.

“Well, we’ve been driving for about an hour…” They check the speedometer. “...so at this rate maybe three hours? If you speed? We should get there about 10:30, maybe.” Carmilla has been speeding this whole time. She presses her foot down harder.

————————

Danny sighs from where she’s sitting on the back porch. She’s been thinking about what Laura said to her for over an hour now. And, as much as she hates to admit it, the future journalist has some good points.

_“If I was the one taken, would you give yourself up for me?”_

In a heartbeat. So Danny doesn’t have any room to talk on that front. She can’t just lock Laura up and hope she’ll stay safe. That’s not healthy for either of them.

But, she knows if Laura goes back, she won’t be able to protect her. If Laura gets hurt, or worse—she can’t even endure the thought. She can’t imagine a world without those bright honey eyes smiling at her.

_“You aren’t my boss. This is my life.”_

That’s what Laura had said. And logically, it’s true. But...she squeezes her eyes shut. But nothing. Just because she cares about Laura, she can’t make these decisions for her. She doesn’t suddenly get the right to treat her like, well, like she is treating her.

_“You can’t assign values to people’s lives just because you lo—because you know them more than others!”_

Deep down, that’s exactly what she was trying to do. And it’s wrong. She stands up. It kills her, but she can’t control what’s going to happen.

Laura is going to risk her life for the people she loves. That’s just who she is. And Danny needs to accept it, because trying to change it would be admitting that she doesn’t actually love Laura as she is. There’s a noise from in the cabin, and she clamps her hands together. Time to go beg forgiveness.  
……….

The front door of the cabin creaks open. Laura doesn’t look up from her book. She is still pissed, and not going to back down an inch.

“Unless you’re here to tell me you’re taking me back to campus, I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Actually, that’s exactly what I was going to say.”

That’s not Danny. Laura jumps up from the couch and backs up.

“Will.”


	5. head trauma and interpersonal conflict management

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hoo boy

"Will."

The sheer shock of seeing him here, in the secret cabin that they couldn’t even tell Laf and Perry the location of, overwhelms her brain for a second. His arms are crossed pleasantly in front of him and he’s smiling lightly. But the way he’s doing it makes her skin crawl.

This is bad. However, Laura is still trying to process the fact that he’s actually here. Is Carmilla nearby? It looks like they were working together after all. She decides to play it casual, because she literally cannot think of anything else to do.

“So what brings you here?” She takes a step back and he takes one forward. Her eyes flit around nervously. There’s no sign of Carmilla, which means... _Danny._ Is Danny okay?

“Oh, you know, I thought I’d just drop by, maybe drag you back to campus by your hair and then drain every last drop of blood from your body in front of your doting roommate.” He casually steps past the couch and Laura inches closer to the kitchen doorway.

She gulps. Does that mean Carmilla is still at the campus, waiting? If so, then her ginger friend is alright. Unless she was already taken out by Will. Laura’s stomach drops. She needs more time to assess the situation.

“That sounds really, um, quaint. But do you think we could reschedule? I’m afraid I’m a bit fond of my blood being in my body at the moment.” She can feel the fear showing on her face, and hates it. But she is really really scared of him. Unlike Carmilla, he oozes with malicious intent, not to mention his rather graphic commentary.

“I don’t think so, cupcake,” he says and closes the distance between them. Instincts taking over, Laura punches him in the throat with enough force to send a normal person down. Unfortunately, she notices while turning to run toward the back exit, he seems to be only momentarily stunned.

He starts forward and grabs her shoulder viciously, so she does the one thing she can think of while elbowing him in the stomach.

“DANNYYYYYY!”  
……….

Danny’s hand, reaching for the door knob, stops along with her heart. She’s just outside when she hears the scream, and then she’s already two rooms in and facing a scene she’d hoped to never witness.

William is there. In the cabin. The secret cabin. She can’t even focus on that because the really horrible part is that Laura is also there, and he’s got a fistful of her hair. He looks up to see Danny just as the blonde kicks him viciously in the groin, and before she can step forward he slams the smaller girl against the wall with a sickening crunch.

Suddenly Danny can move again, and she throws herself at him in a fury. He’s expecting it, and he sidesteps with ease. It doesn’t matter. Now she’s in between him and Laura, which is all she cares about. Behind her, the blonde groans while the other two size each other up.

“Laura, I need you to take the truck and drive out of here.” She feels her start to sit up. 

“I can’t drive, Danny.” Her voice is weak and it sounds like she’s hit her head. Danny swears, maintaining eye contact with Will, ready to attack at any second.

“It’s pretty easy. Pedal on the right is gas, brakes are in the middle. You’ll do fine. The keys are in the front pocket of the bag on my bed. I’ll hold him off.”

William laughs at that.

“Oh? Do you really think you can? You may be strong, but without your pack, I can take you down easy, werewolf.” Danny swears again. Of course he knew. It’s not that hard to figure out. The question is, why is she so bad at sniffing out the vampires? She grits her teeth. It doesn’t matter right now.  
……….

Laura’s arm feels like it's about to explode and she’s pretty sure she might have a concussion, because Will just said something that sounded to her like he was calling Danny a...and Danny isn’t refuting it. Really? Her roommate is a vampire and her best friend is a werewolf?

“Talk about getting the full college experience,” she mutters while trying to get on her hands and knees. As soon as she tries to put weight on her right arm, the pain makes her vision shatter into technicolored fragments, and she cries out. From far above her, Danny flinches.

Has she always been that tall? She’s positively looming.

Dimly, Laura is aware that she should be freaking out. She has to get out of here. But everything hurts so much and her thoughts are really fuzzy. Danny said, she said she needs to get the keys to the car. They’re in her bedroom. The green room.

Suddenly Danny growls inhumanly and there’s a crash above Laura. She snaps back to reality. A ball of limbs and teeth thrashing violently in the corner. Danny and Will. She stumbles to her feet gracelessly and makes her way to the hallway. She can’t walk straight, she keeps tripping over her feet. When she leans against the wall for just a mo’ the whole thing tilts crazily and she worries she’s going to fall onto the ceiling.

Far away and strangely muffled, Laura hears lots of angry noises from the living room, which motivates her to grope her way forward. Her heart is pounding so hard it’s actually making it’s way to her head to personally knock on it, which is rude because her skull hurts enough as it is.

Somehow, the door to the bedroom is suddenly before her, just as there is a horrific noise like the couch being thrown against a wall, followed almost instantaneously by a scream of pain from Danny.

The sound cuts through her like a knife, but Laura can’t think about it. She can’t. Instead of dwelling, she forces her way into the room. On the bed, where’s the bag. There’s no bag. Where’s the bag?! She scans the room frantically. There! It’s on the chair, next to the bed. Cursing her friend’s inaccuracy, Laura limps over to it.

More crashing, and the whole cabin shakes violently. She lets herself fall onto the bed and begins rooting through the pockets swiftly. Keys. There’s some loose change and a pack of gum. Keys? No, that’s a flashlight. She rummages around some more. Keys!

Trying not to shriek, Laura braces herself against the frame of the bed and gets to a standing position. Her head spins wildly and it takes a lot of effort not to throw up. Everything is so hot and stuffy, but she forces herself to take a deep breath. She can do this.

Laura scrambles to the door of the bedroom then peeks out. There’s no one. She cautiously steps into the hallway, holding the keys in her fist like tiny metal claws. She knows it won’t have an effect if it comes to it, but it feels good. Her ears are ringing like a school bell, but it seems like the house is suspiciously quiet.

Then there’s movement and she sees Will stumble into the hallway. She freezes, but before he can do anything a blur of redheaded fury slams into him and they hit the wall, hard. Then Danny grabs Will’s shirt and uses her body weight to throw him back out of the way. She spares Laura a single glance of concern before leaping after him.

Laura stumbles falteringly forward. Everything is still spinning, maybe a little slower now, and Danny looked in bad shape. Her face was bleeding all over and she was holding her side like it was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

Drunkenly, the tiny blonde finds her way to the front door, trying not to look to her right, where the fight is. And instead of covering her ears to drown out the terrible sounds coming from there—sounds no humans could make, she opens the door and trips into the night.

The cool air does wonders for her head. Her vision clears, and she only realizes now that it had been blurry and tinted. But she can’t take time to appreciate the crystal clear scenery. She still needs to get out of here. Stumbling less with every step, she makes her way to the truck and opens the front seat.

Wait. The fresh oxygen means her brain finally has a chance to catch up. Danny wants her to run away and leave her for dead. If what William said about her being alone meant he could beat her is true. Laura can’t just leave Danny alone in there. She can’t have another friend suffer for her.

She thinks desperately. What can she do? Against a superstrong vampire, her self-defense is useless. If she goes back inside, she won’t be doing it to fight him off.

But maybe she can make the trail of bodies stop with her. After all, for whatever twisted reason, she seems to be the one he’s after.

It feels like there’s an earthquake in her head, because everything is shaking and roaring as she closes the door to the car. She looks back at the cabin and takes a faltering step toward it. Everything is so loud and confusing again. From within, something unrecognizable yells in pain.

Laura takes another step, but suddenly loses her balance. It feels like someone just slammed into her—no, wait. Someone did just slam into her. There are arms around her and they’re hurting her arm and all her bruises and she gasps from the pain. Looking up she sees Carmilla’s face inches from her own, fanged teeth stretched wide.

Panicking, Laura tries to shove herself away ineffectively, but then Laf is there too and hugs her and then she realizes that she’s being hugged and not attacked, that Carmilla’s not trying to eat her she’s asking if she’s okay, and that the roaring wasn’t in her head, it was a car pulling up at ridiculous speeds.

None of it makes any sense, but she is aware enough to know that she’s not the one who needs the support of a supernatural creature right now.

“Danny. Danny’s inside, she’s wolfing, she—fighting Will, her side, please, please you can’t let him kill her!”

Laura tugs at Carmilla’s shirt as she tries to convey the situation to the confused vampire. To her relief the dark haired girl turns her attention to the cabin and creeps forward, keeping her hand on Laura’s arm.

Laf backs up, meanwhile, they’re going back to the car for some reason. Laura doesn’t know, she doesn’t care, and she’s about to scream at Carmilla to hurry because this is an emergency when everything explodes again and for a few scattered seconds the only thing she knows is her roommate’s shirt in her face as Carm shields her.

Then there’s quiet, real quiet for the first time since Laura banged her head, and she peeks around the cage of Carmilla’s protective arms. Will and Danny took their fight outside, it seems, because they’re on the porch and there’s a jagged hole where the window and a big chunk of the front wall used to be.

Everyone is frozen. Danny, whose limbs are all wrong and also, she appears to have fur everywhere, is staring at Carmilla. Her arms are still holding onto Will’s chest, and he is also taking in the newcomers.

Laf is halfway through helping Perry out of the car, but it’s on the wrong side for Danny to see them. All she sees is Carmilla holding Laura. It’s enough for her to loosen her hold on William and take a step forward, eyes flashing dangerously.

Will is locked in a death glare with Carmilla, and the instant Danny focuses elsewhere and releases her grip on him he flashes his fist forward and the tall girl crumples. Laura screams and tries to run forward, but Carmilla’s arm is blocking her, holding her back.

All the female vampire takes is one half-step at them before he bounds over the porch railing and into the woods. She lets go of Laura and then everyone is rushing toward Danny, who is morphing back into her human form. Frantically, Laura slides to the ground and grabs Danny’s arm with her good hand.

There’s blood everywhere and even though she’s fully back to human now some of her limbs are still pointed the wrong way. Laura is sobbing. She can’t lose Danny, not now, not when everyone is here and the only reason Laura is alive is because of her.

Then Laf is there and she scoots to the side to allow the bio major some room to work. She doesn’t even know if Danny’s still alive but if she is, Laf can save her, right? If anyone can, it’s Laf. They have to.

Carmilla’s arms are around her again. She’s pulling her away and Laura doesn’t want to go even though she knows Laf needs room to work, even though Perry is already opening a huge first aid kit that she got from the car.

She doesn’t want to go but she has to. So she lets the other girl drag her off the porch and to the side yard, and when she collapses it’s Carmilla’s arms that are catching her and setting her softly on the ground. It’s Carmilla’s chest she’s crying into, and it’s Carmilla’s voice that is soothing her and crooning softly while she sinks into oblivion.

————————

_This isn’t the best quad mixer Danny has ever been to. It’s too loud and crowded for her taste, and the usual Zeta goat-roast just isn’t doing it for her. Maybe if_ someone _hadn’t gotten hurt while hiking this morning, and then insisted that Danny needed to go without her, it would be different._

_But unfortunately after Elsie’s little stunt, Joan was not here. And the blonde had shown no remorse for causing her friend's injury, instead heading to a dark corner with some goth chick almost immediately._

_So, Danny is by herself, sitting under a tree, watching all the wasted students and guessing who would have the worst hangover in the morning. She doesn’t have anything against parties, but it’s been a long week and she honestly just wanted some quiet time alone. Maybe she should head back to the Summer dorms._

_“Danny!” The redhead finds herself hugged from behind and she turns to see an overexcited Laura. Maybe she should stick around for a little longer. It’s a Friday night, and she’s not an old lady yet._

_Next to Laura is her roommate, Betty. Danny doesn’t know much about her, but from what she has seen she isn’t impressed. For a freshman, the girl sure is partying a lot. And her grades are less than exemplary. She sighs. Girls like that, ones who don’t have any purpose or drive, tend to follow the same kind of path, and it isn’t pretty._

_But this is a party and here Danny is, being gross and depressing when she should be thinking about fun things. Like the pretty girl in front of her._

_“What’s up, Hollis? I didn’t know you were going to be here. Otherwise I would have dressed up more.” The redhead is in a flannel and skinny jeans, in contrast with Laura’s sparkly red attire. Her roommate’s touch is obvious, considering what she usually wears to Danny’s class._

_At her sentence the blonde ducks her head down and grins adorably._

_“I think you look pretty good.” She looks up suddenly, like she hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but Danny laughs it off. She offers her hand, and in the distance, there are loud cheers as the Alchemy Club releases some sort of fog._

_“Well, then, if you’re not ashamed to be seen with me, what do you say we go and have some fun? For a mixer, I’m not exactly doing a lot of mixing.” She makes a face and Laura giggles, then takes her hand. The girl looks back at Betty._

_“Come on Betts, let’s go. No running off on me,” she calls lightly. Her roommate, who clearly got an early start on drinking, nods distractedly. Danny shakes her head, then focuses her attention back on the small bright figure in front of her. This is a great party._

————————

Danny flutters slowly back into consciousness. Everything hurts and she can’t move. A jolt of adrenaline rushes through her system as she remembers what’s happening. Laura is in danger. Her eyes snap open and she tries to force her dead limbs into action.

She’s on the couch, and there are muted voices coming from the kitchen. Knitting her eyebrows together, she frantically tries to understand. She was desperately fighting a losing battle, and then they were on the porch, and Laura was caught by Carmilla, and then, and then...nothing.

Her heart seizes. The vamps got Laura and she’s stuck on the couch and she can’t move her body and she needs to get out and save Laura. She groans loudly, which makes the voices stop for a second.

“Was that…? Danny!”

And then in front of her is the most beautiful sight she’s ever seen. Laura, quickly followed by Lafontaine and Perry, all of them looking a little worse for wear but relatively unharmed.

“I don’t understand. The vampires...how?” Is all she can croak. Laura takes her hand with a warm smile, and Danny notices that her right arm is in a sling.

“Yeah, there seems to have been some slight miscommunication, Xena.” That comes from another figure, slinking up behind the others. Carmilla. She immediately tenses and tries to leap up, but all she can muster is slight shoulder movement.

“What the hell is this?! Guys, you need to run! That’s the bloodsucking vampire who was trying to eat Laura!” Everyone exchanges glances while Danny struggles futilely some more.

Why won’t her body move? Why isn’t everyone running? Panic is shooting through her system, and she growls. This is bad. Is there some kind of vampiric hypnosis at play? Where did Will go?

Laura tightens her grip on Danny’s hand.

“It’s okay! Danny, just calm down, everything’s okay. We were wrong about Carmilla, she wasn’t the one taking the girls. That was Will, right?” At that the freshman throws a glance at the vampire, who nods cautiously.

Danny can’t believe what she’s hearing. This has to be some kind of trick. If she could just move her goddamn body she would already be halfway to staking the fiend. But try as she might, she can’t budge an inch, which is starting to drive her crazy.

“What the hell is wrong with my body?” She bursts out, glaring at Carmilla. Laf is the one to respond.

“Currently, not nearly as much as was wrong with it an hour ago when you were bleeding out on the porch, which is pretty remarkable. You’re still pretty beat up, but the broken ribs are healing at a rate which is frankly—” they pause and look her up and down like a thrilling bio specimen “—inhuman.” Perry elbows them and their eyes focus back on her face.

“And as for why you can’t move, I had to use some pretty heavy anesthetics, so those effects are still wearing off.”

“Danny,” interjects Laura while leaning forward. “Carmilla is on our side. She saved us. If she hadn’t shown up, Will would have—”

“She saved us?” Danny asks incredulously. “Laura, she’s the reason we’re here at all! Remember the whole ‘evil vampire wants to feed on you’ thing?” Of course trusting Laura believes whatever secretly-good bullcrap the vamp is feeding her. She would believe a snake if it told her it had legs, or a man who says he just wants to be friends.

Danny doesn’t have the luxury of being so naive. She still doesn’t know what Carmilla’s play is, but make no mistake, she’ll be watching for it. Speak of the devil, the monster in question snorts and leans back like she has every right in the world to be there.

“Well, about that. I don’t actually ever recall trying to hurt Laura. You assumed I was a villain the second you found out about me, which is reasonable I suppose, but I’m sorry to say, you got the wrong vampire.”

The redhead glares at her some more. How can she be so nonchalant and full of snark? As if they aren’t still in the middle of a crisis of missing girls and vampire attacks, which she is only allegedly not involved in.

“You’re still a vampire.”

“Well you’re a werewolf, Danny!” Her attention snaps to Laura, who has dropped her hand and is now angry. “You never mentioned that!” Her heart sinks, then flares in indignation. Of course. Laura will be mad at her for that but completely forgive the bloodsucking fiend who has been nothing but trouble since day one.

“Yeah, but there isn’t a werewolf problem on campus! Elvira over here is a suspect for _lots_ of reasons,” Danny starts but then they all fall into overlapping bickering.

A piercing whistle breaks through, and they fall silent and turn to Lafontaine, the source of the noise.

“I have an idea! Instead of fighting like toddlers, let's work out our issues one at a time like adults.” They look around and grab a small metal tool and smile condescendingly.

“Or at least like obedient little toddlers with one adult supervisor. This is the talking scalpel. Only the person holding the talking scalpel can speak.” They give a pointed look to everyone and make a show of handing the talking scalpel to Carmilla. “You first, Vampirella. Defend yourself.”

 

For the next hour or so, they sort out exactly what happened. Carmilla explains her past, and even Danny has to admit it sounds pretty awful. Then they pass the scalpel around for the least fun Q&A the Summer Society VP has ever been in.

Lafontaine continues to treat them like five-year-olds, but other than the occasional eye roll from Carmilla, no one breaks the rules. And slowly, an understanding is reached. Of course, that’s still assuming everyone is telling the truth, which Danny is not quite ready to accept yet.

The truly sucky part, however, is that Laura can barely look at her. For whatever reason, she seems pissed at Danny, which feels unfair considering that the redhead just nearly died keeping her safe. But, while she’s frustrated, she keeps it in. Their drama isn’t exactly important right now.

“And we sent Kirsch to tell the Summers that we were okay,” finishes Perry. “Although since you two never got the memo, it seems something went wrong.”

Danny rolls her eyes.

“Well, it depends who he told. If it was Mel, she probably decided to keep that info under wraps so she could have an excuse to keep everyone angry and willing to give her power.” Her competition for Society president has a different view of right and wrong than most people.

“That’s awful!” Laura pouts. Danny shrugs. Part of the reason she wants to be president so badly is because she’s really worried about the direction the Summers would go in with Mel in charge.

The wannabe Amazon seems more than willing to go back to the old ways. But there’s a reason they don’t do those things anymore. Personally, Danny favors the preservation of life over the preservation of every archaic ritual. She likes the Summers as a community, not a regiment.

“Okay, well, if we’ve all decided that we trust each other now, perhaps we should plan our next move.” The vampire looks stressed. “Because even though I am ecstatic that Creampuff over here is safe from my twisted brother, the situation is still shit.”

“The last time students realized girls were going missing, they burnt down half the campus. And as much faith as I have in the ability of the Zeta Omega Mu’s, the Alchemy Club, and your Summers to keep their heads cool—oh wait! I don’t!”

As much as it pains Danny, the vampire’s got a point. If she were there, she could at least keep the Summers under control. But with Mel ramping everyone up and the Zeta’s and Alchemy Club being their usual garbage selves, it’s only a matter of time before people get hurt. Innocent people.

“So, we need to get back to campus. Fine.” The effects of the anaesthetics seem to have mostly worn off, and Danny gingerly sits up. “Perry, you and Laf and Carmilla go to the kitchen and make some food before we leave. Laura and I will pack up our stuff.”

While the others head out to the kitchen, she looks over at the tiny blonde. She looks very unhappy to be stuck with Danny. But the tall girl didn’t become the unofficial mom of about fifty college girls who all live together without learning how to deal with conflict.

And Laura means too much to her to lose over one fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, look, a wild hollence was spotted! not a lot. but the more i thought about the situation, the more i knew that danny and laura do have to sort through some stuff. which i promise, they will!


	6. let's communicate well because we're ADULTS

Danny knocks hesitantly on the door to Laura’s room. There’s a moment of silence from within, then the door creaks partially open and she sees Laura, body blocking the entrance. Her jaw is tense, and she’s looking everywhere but Danny, which sends a pang through her heart.

“What do you want?” her voice is short, almost abrasive. Danny swallows.

“I want to talk. I—I want to apologize.” At that, Laura looks up. Her eyes are searching, and she purses her lips, thinking. Then, she opens the door the rest of the way and shifts to allow her entrance.

“And what exactly are you apologizing for?” She asks while Danny seats herself on the edge of the bed nervously. The ginger fidgets. She thinks she knows why Laura is upset at her. If she hadn’t been so pigheaded about the other girl’s safety and they’d left like she wanted, they would have actually avoided Will. Oh the irony.

“Well, I was wrong. You were right, we should have left.”

“And you’re just realizing this now? Because Will found us?” Laura doesn’t sound any less annoyed and she’s holding her injured arm tightly.

“No!” Danny closes her eyes. She doesn’t know how to explain. That Laura wasn’t just right because Will came. That Danny was already coming to apologize when he showed up. That she wasn’t just right, she was—her eyes snap open.

“I’m not trying to say that you were right from a logistical standpoint because of the way things played out. I’m saying that you were in the right, from the beginning. From our fight. I was treating you wrong, trying to control you because I felt like I knew better than you.”

Laura makes a noise in her throat, and Danny hurriedly continues.

“And that was wrong! And I am so sorry, Laura, I am so sorry I didn’t listen to you. It is your life, and leaving or not was your decision to make. I should have respected that, even if I didn’t like what you decided.”

Danny can’t look up. Instead, she stares at her hands, rubbing an old scar on her thumb. Laura isn’t saying anything, and the silence weighs on her like a ton of bricks, squeezing her chest so she can’t breathe.

From her peripheral, the shape that is her friend moves slowly forward, gliding toward the bed. She slips down until she’s sitting next to Danny, whose eyes are still glued downward. Her heart is pounding now, and she can’t recall ever feeling so vulnerable.

A small hand enters her vision and grips her own, stilling them. Then it finds its way under Danny’s chin and gently leads her head up until she is face to face with the blonde. Her breath catches.

Laura’s eyes have never been so soft, but they are streaked with so much pain Danny hates herself. She caused that.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a werewolf?” Danny starts. “It seems like pretty pertinent information for someone who’s about to live alone with you in a cabin to flee the supernatural.” She lets out a quiet laugh with no real humor in it.

Danny sits up straighter. She’s caught off guard by this line of questions, but, after everything they’ve gone through, she figures Laura has a right to know whatever she wants. But she doesn’t really know where to start.

“Well...um,” she starts, then trails off. Her mind is a blank suddenly. Every motivation and thought seems to have barricaded themselves behind a wall she can’t breach. Why didn’t she bring it up, again?

“I mean, did you think I would care?” Laura interjects. Her tone is careful, but it can’t hide the hurt that goes with the question. Danny rushes to reassure her.

“No, that’s not it. Well, I mean, I knew you wouldn’t, but, the thing is...this isn’t the first time I knew someone wouldn’t hate me after finding out something hidden. Only I was wrong before.”

She takes a deep breath, and all of a sudden the wall in her head collapses and she can remember her fears and insecurities. The long train of thoughts that had led her to not telling anyone, no matter how much she thought they would understand.

Laura moves her hand to Danny’s arm, holding it comfortingly.

“What happened before? Someone found out you were a werewolf and it didn’t go well?”

Danny barks a short laugh.

“Actually, no.” She tilts her head back and lets her mind take her back. “It was about something different. Which is funny, because the person in question _was_ a werewolf. My aunt, on my mom’s side. Part of our family’s pack.”

Laura knits her forehead, trying to understand.

“Then, what was it about?” The ginger sighs. Most of the time, she tries not to think about that whole summer. Or that branch of her family.

“Okay, so when I was fourteen I spent the summer with my cousins on their ranch. We were really close, even though we didn’t get to see each other very often. And I really trusted my aunt and uncle. I loved them like my parents. And I—I thought they felt the same. So I thought it would be okay if I, you know, I…” She sighs and clears her throat.

“I came out. I thought it would be fine, but it wasn’t.” Danny’s voice is suddenly constricted, and she clears her throat again. Laura lets out a small gasp, and pulls her into a one-armed hug. The taller girl lets her even though it hurts her bruises. She can feel the understanding and love radiating out of her friend.

“Yeah, long story short, it was really crappy. My aunt wouldn’t even let me back into the house to get my stuff, so I had to walk three miles just to reach another house to call my parents and have them pick me up.” She sighs.

“My parents were livid on my behalf, and we haven’t spoken to them since. And ever since then, I just, I can never really 100% make myself believe that, that I won’t be rejected, no matter how well I know someone. Because I really thought I knew her.”

“So, even though you logically knew I would be fine with you, your bad experience still haunted you and made you not tell me?” Laura inquires. She nods tightly. Here comes the moment of truth.

“Of course that’s fine, Danny. It’s your choice who you tell and when. I shouldn’t have—the thing is—” She exhales, steeling herself. “I thought you were doing it to try to protect me from the truth or something. That’s why I got mad. But I was wrong.”

Danny looks at her. She hadn’t been expecting that reaction. She had been expecting disaster, accusations and pain, all things she would have accepted. But this...her heart swells with just how much she loves Laura. The smaller girl fidgets.

“And, if you’re really serious about being sorry for earlier…?”

“I am,” Danny says eagerly, traces of hope starting to rise in her heart, which feels ten pounds lighter. Is she really going to get a second chance? It seems too good to be true. The universe is not normally so kind to her. “I want to do better.”

“Good.” Laura’s body posture suddenly relaxes. “Because it’s like, I already have an overprotective dad, I don’t want my girlfriend to be like that too.” They both freeze. “I—um, not that you’re my—I meant—” she stutters, waving her arms frantically, which makes her look like a chicken since one is trapped in a sling.

Danny puts her hands over Laura’s and pulls it into her lap.

“We should probably talk about that.” Laura slowly looks up, wide-eyed. Danny clears her throat. Communication. “What are we, Laura? Because it feels like a lot more than friends.”

There’s a moment of silence while they look into each other's eyes. Danny’s gaze is searching and full of hope. Laura’s is terrified, but also traced with longing. After a moment, Danny gives a lopsided grin.

“If you’re not ready yet, that’s okay,” she begins. And it is. She’ll wait as long as Laura wants, take things as slow as she needs.

“I like you Danny,” she suddenly blurts out. “I like you a lot. And, and sometimes I wondered if we were already dating, and I had just missed the moment it became official.” Danny can’t help but laugh.

“That feeling is mutual.”

“Yeah! I was like, are we a thing now? Did Danny ask me out in her head and then forget to do it in person and then forget that she forgot to ask me? Did she actually do it and I’m the one who’s forgetting?” They’re both snorting at this point.

“And did you feel like so much time had gone by that it was too awkward to bring up?” Danny asks between breaths. Laura nods vigorously and cackles.

“Oh god, yes! That is exactly how I felt! I was like, Danny, you do know that’s not how friends act around each other, right? Ugh, why didn’t you ever bring it up earlier?”

“Why didn’t you?” Danny gestures in righteous indignation. “I mean, technically, you kissed me; on the nose after our wrestling match.” Now Laura is the outraged one.

“Well you were the one who started snuggling on the couch during the Christmas special!”

“Hey, that was very mutual snuggling! And let’s not forget when you wore my sweater! I almost died.”

“All my clothes were outside! And maybe if you had taken me to your parents’ room, which has a bigger bed might I add, I wouldn’t have stolen your clothes.”

“You...always take at least one bite of my cookies!”

“Oh, this coming from the girl who holds my hand while she escorts me back to my dorm room!”

“You definitely flirted with me during Lit class!”

“Well you’re the one who had to go and be so hot and polite and interesting!”

Danny can’t think of a counterpoint to that. So instead, she takes her heart into her hands and kisses her.

Kissing Laura is, well it’s everything she hoped it might be, plus some. At first the short girl is too shocked to respond, but then she makes a high pitched noise in the back of her throat and leans into it.

Danny’s hands raise themselves to cup around her face, and she pulls back long enough to take a breath. One breath is all she gets though before Laura propels herself forward, wrapping her good arm eagerly around Danny’s neck.

Then it’s all lips and hair and fireworks exploding across Danny’s mind. Her hands lower from Laura’s face and instead snake across her middle, pulling her closer. She needs to be closer, she doesn’t want any space between them, so as gently as she can, she crushes Laura against herself. Laura groans against her lips and Danny has never been more attracted to someone.

Laura’s hand, meanwhile, has tangled in Danny’s hair, twisting it into knots. It feels amazing, to say the least. Danny loses awareness of everything but the feel of her lips against Laura’s. It’s messy and she loves it, loves all the different ways they make their mouths fit together, loves the overlap between them.

Perfect moments can’t last forever, though, and no one knows this like Danny. She slows her assault on Laura’s face and pulls her hands back to give Laura room to back up. It takes a second, but the blonde gives one last, lingering kiss and pulls away. They’re both breathing heavily.

Danny looks into her eyes again and it’s almost as good as the kissing. They’re bright and excited and Danny decides then and there that brown is her absolute favorite color. She leans forward and ignores the way Laura tilts her head in response, instead planting a kiss firmly on her forehead, before resting her own against it.

Laura closes her eyes and sighs before slowly running her tongue along her lips and carefully biting them, making sure to drag her teeth across her bottom lip seductively. She opens her eyes and pleads with them. Danny curses in her head, bringing her left hand up to caress her warm cheek, then leans down again, taking her time now.

Kissing Laura is like bright summer days and finishing a long assignment and playing softball and the first time Danny turned into a wolf and saw the world with new eyes. But mostly, it just feels right. Easy. It makes sense.

They continue to make sense together for several more minutes before one of them finally gathers enough self control to pull away for good.

“Danny we really should go and talk to the others.” She whines a little, then resigns herself.

“I guess so. We don’t want them to leave without us.” She brushes a loose strand of Laura’s hair, and the other girl brightens.

“Of course, we’ll have plenty of time for this later. All the time in the world, in fact,” she whispers, and Danny is so ridiculously happy. She can see it, them together in the future, holding hands in public and going on runs together and laughing as they eat dinner in their kitchen and she probably shouldn’t think that far ahead, but she can’t help it.

A reckless part of her wants to say that she loves her, but she holds back. She’s thought it before, but with a very different meaning than it has now. And anyway, there’s no need to say it just yet. She grins to herself. They’ll have time for that.

Laura nips her quickly one last time and then gets up from the bed, stretching happily. Danny watches her and it feels amazing to know that she’s allowed to do that now. She can look at her and want her badly, and she doesn’t have to hide her expression as soon as Laura looks back.

She wishes so badly that they weren’t caught up in a terrifying life-or-death situation. How nice would it be if they could just be two ordinary students whose biggest concerns were their grades. Instead, they’re both heavily involved.

The thought of her Sisters on the prowl gives Danny the energy to get up and open the door for Laura. They both head out into the hallway, then make there way to the kitchen, where the others seem to have grouped.

Laf and Perry are by the microwave, standing so close she’s surprised they haven’t melded together. After what they went through, Danny can understand that. If it had been Laura Will had hurt like that...her blood boils. She may not like Carmilla, but Will is a monster.

Speaking of the broody goth, Carm seems to be struggling with the idea of sitting like an actual human. She’s leaning back in her chair, feet crossed over the table, combat boots firmly settled on the wood. Danny closes her eyes and counts to ten. It’s not worth it.

Instead of suggesting another place the vampire could shove her feet, Danny starts making enough coffee to last everyone the drive back to Silas. It’s past 2 am now, so if they leave soon, they should get back around dawn. Then the real fight can begin.

“Here’s a question.” Laura breaks the silence in the room. “How are we all going to get back? There’s two cars and five of us.” Danny starts to speak up but Laura holds up a finger to silence her. “Danny, how long have you been awake?”

Danny counts in her head for a bit.

“Sixteen hours?” Laura shakes her head.

“Seventeen. Plus, you had the big fight with William Vampire and you’re probably still a bit concussed. Someone else is driving your truck while you sleep.” Laura’s voice is forceful, brooking no argument. It still feels wrong, though.

“But—”

“No buts. Once we get back to campus, the Summers will need you to keep them from enacting martial law or something.”

Danny grimaces. That sounds like something Mel would do. Reluctantly, she concedes. As much as it pains her, she can’t always be in control. Werewolf or not, she has limits, and she’s just about reached hers for the day. Sleeping sounds nice.

“Okay, so, who will drive my truck?” She automatically looks at Perry, the one she trusts most with her beloved vehicle. Then she sees the state the frizzy-haired girl is in and feels guilty. She’s in no condition to be doing anything other than recovering. Laf is also out of the question, then. They’ve both been through hell today.

But Laura can’t drive and FangFace brought her own car. There’s a heavy silence, and they all look down.

“I will.” Everyone turns to look at Perry. Laf puts their hand on her arm and says something in a low voice. Danny can’t hear the words, but she assumes it’s an attempt to say no. “It’s fine, Lafontaine. It’ll give me something to do. I don’t think I could sleep even if I tried.” They all flinch, and she clears her throat.

“Besides, I’m the one who isn’t needed once we get back to campus. Danny will be with the Summers, you’ll be at the library with Carm searching for useful information and Laura, well, she always finds some way to get involved.” At that, everyone in the room chuckles.

Danny is impressed. Perry’s not only offering help despite the fact that she’s probably traumatized and ready to drop, she also managed to simultaneously bring up the morale of the group and remind them of their importance/next step.

She may not seem like much at first, but the quiet girl is actually quite amazing. Especially considering how much she helped despite being very unwilling about this whole business. Perry is an irreplaceable part of the team.

“I’m going with Perry,” Laf interjects suddenly. Danny nods at them. Of course. But, all four of them can’t fit in her truck, which means...that means…

Either her or Laura will have to go with Carmilla. She grits her teeth, then glances at Laura, who seems to be reaching the same conclusion. Better beat her to it.

“I’m with Drusilla then, and Laura, you go with Laf and Per,” she says quickly. Laura knits her eyebrows together in confusion, most likely wondering why Danny would want to spend time with the fanged wonder.

Obviously she is just trying to keep Laura away from the vampire whose intentions are still unclear. The only one who doesn’t seem to realize this, however, is the brilliant journalism major who can be amazingly obtuse sometimes. Usually only when she’s involved.

The penny drops then and she opens her mouth to say something, most likely an argument. Danny doesn’t give her the chance.

“Someone’s got to keep an eye on the other two, and I want enough space to stretch out, which I can’t get if I’m crammed in my truck with two other people.” Her voice is overly bright, and Carmilla rolls her eyes from behind the book she found somewhere. Of course.

The mention of Perry and Laf, who are definitely still on the brink of collapsing, is what convinces Laura. She assents, and the now might-as-well-be-one-person LaFerry usher her out of the room to start loading up. That leaves Danny and the midnight horror. Great.

“So I guess it’s just me and you, Xena.” Carmilla puts down her book and smiles sarcastically. Danny doesn’t say anything, instead pulling out two thermoses to pour the coffee she’d been preparing into. She hesitates.

“Do you even drink coffee?” She forces herself to say. Carmilla seems to take special joy in her discomfort, languidly stretching the muscles in her neck before answering. “Yes.” Suddenly she looks down and fidgets with her hand. Her voice loses some of its usual smug sexiness. “I could use it, actually. I’ve been up all day.”

That’s right. She was looking for Laura. And not because she wanted to eat her. For the opposite reason, a fact which causes Danny to be washed with guilt. Maybe she isn’t being fair to Carmilla. She was ready to fight her own kind.

“Thank you, by the way.”

Carmilla looks up in surprise and her eyebrows shoot up. The way she seems so caught off guard makes Danny feel worse. She can’t even imagine what her life must have been like, at the hands of a sadistic, manipulative monster for centuries.

“If you hadn’t shown up, with Will, I—I don’t know what would have happened. With a Sister or some of my pack, it would’ve been easy, but alone against him, and with Laura to watch out for, I just don’t know…” her voice has been growing quieter and she forces it back to a normal volume. “So thank you. Once you showed up, he ran.”

Carmilla seems at a loss for words, which is Danny’s first time seeing. After a few seconds of vaguely opening and closing her mouth repeatedly, she shakes her head.

“Sure thing. And, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. If I hadn’t gone rushing to Will thinking he took Laura, he wouldn’t have even cared if she was gone. But he wanted to piss me off, and all this happened.” Danny can’t believe what she’s hearing.

Carmilla is actually, apologizing? Apparently there’s a lot she doesn’t know about the raven-haired girl. Going forward as allies suddenly seems more feasible. Maybe someday they might even be friends. Crazier things have happened at Silas.

“You couldn’t have known.”

Carmilla looks at her for a long moment, tilting her head.

“You sound like Laura.” Danny rolls her eyes, overcome by a sudden impulse to stop...whatever it is they’re doing.

“Yeah, well, you might as well get used to it. I’m going to have to say a lot of nice things about you once we make it back to campus to convince the Summers not to put you on trial for kidnapping. Or, you know, for being a vampire in general.”

Carmilla laughs wryly. “Not the first time I’ve been through that.”  
……….

Just then, the other three enter from outside. Laura stops short at the sight of Danny and Carmilla not looking like they want to rip each other’s heads off. Were they...bonding? The thought makes her happy.

She’s never felt the way about Carm that she was supposed to feel about a vampire who allegedly wanted to eat you. And after hearing her whole story tonight, she doesn’t think anyone could still hate her. So she’s really glad to see them getting along. They’re kind of a team now.

“Laura!” That was Danny. Even though it’s been less than five minutes since she saw her last, the redhead looks as excited as if it’d been weeks. She always looks like that, like Laura is the light in a dark room. “Is everyone ready to go?”

Laura nods, and watches as Danny hands a thermos to Perry, then one to Carmilla. Analytically, she calculates their relaxed body language, their non-accidental eye-contact, and the way neither of them exaggeratedly wipes their hands after briefly touching each other. They definitely came to some kind of understanding while she was gone. Good.

And after that, they set out. The truck, being the naturally slower vehicle, goes first. Carmilla’s sleek black ride follows closely, like a bodyguard. Which, Laura muses, it kind of is, given the fact that Will is still on the loose and both the supernatural creatures are in the other car.

She’s wedged sideways across the back seats with a lot of pillows and blankets. Just like on the way here. Except entirely not the same. Before, she was exhausted, confused, and scared, not to mention plagued by Will’s vampiric influence.

Now she feels clear-headed, and while she was still very tired, it doesn’t reach all the way to her bones anymore. Instead, the underlying excitement of being back in action makes her soul feel light. She is ready for anything the university can throw at her.

That’s it. She puts a finger on exactly what’s different from the ride to the cabin. Technically, not much has changed.

They still don’t know where the missing girls are, or why they’re being taken, or how they can beat the people they’re up against. They still have so much to do, and almost no idea how to do it.

But now, they’re all in it together. They have hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and then they go back to the campus and mel's already built like four trebuchets and the zetas have killed two goats and the alchemy club accidentally mushroomed themselves inside their lab and can't get out. but it's ok because danny is here to take charge and laf and laura start looking in the library while carmilla and perry take their respective naps in the summer society attic. and then things get really wild...


End file.
